


I Never Said I Liked You

by VanillaWafer42



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: And so does Keef, BAMF Pidge | Katie Holt, Bc she is the best bean, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, I have no idea how long but still, Keith (Voltron)-centric, Like all of my other content, Major Character Injury, Multi, Oops, Pidge does gymnast stuff, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Sassy Pidge | Katie Holt, Time to change that, but its also, i haven't written in a hot minute, it might be a bit painful, it's gonna be long, its not that bad tho, my finger slipped, pidge swears, there is betrayal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 47,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28001259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VanillaWafer42/pseuds/VanillaWafer42
Summary: Pidge didn't want anyone over for the summer. She had auditions to train for. And when Matt brought more friends than she expected, she nearly screamed. She had enough pressure breathing down her neck, and now she had to work around four immature teenage boys.It was not going to be easy. But she would make it work. She always did. She grew to like the boys, to enjoy their company rather than despise it. And just when she thought things were getting back to normal, Matt didn't come home one evening.The world just has a funny way of making things worse.
Relationships: Hunk & Keith & Lance & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith/Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt & Pidge | Katie Holt, Matt Holt/Shiro
Comments: 28
Kudos: 68





	1. I Might Even Be Able To Swear

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first in a series of many. The story is up on my Wattpad (@Vanilla_Wafer_421) if you want to see more chapters. The first four chapters are pretty short, the ones afterward get a little longer. 
> 
> As for the tag of 'Major Character Death', I wouldn't really consider them a 'main' character in this story. But, just to be safe I included it. There are also might be some triggering concepts I guess with dealing with grief. And some swearing. That's about all. 
> 
> Enjoy

She brought her feet up to the top of the ring and hooked her toes around the metal edge. Even though she was wearing socks, her feet didn't slip. The strong grip gave her enough time to twist her arms around to the opposite side of the hoop, and let her feet fall back down. Her arms supported her weight, her legs in a split position. 

She let go with her hands and flew down to the bottom of the ring, her hands catching her before she could fall. The force of the impact didn't break her split, but she felt the hoop start to spin, and threw her head back to face the ceiling. 

She hung there elegantly for another few seconds before bringing her legs together and doing a backflip off the bottom of the metal ring. Her feet landed perfectly on the mat below, her landing was flawless. She threw her hands up behind her and did a little bow. 

"Bravo!" Matt shouted from outside the room, clapping loudly. Instantly, Katie broke her stance and stomped over to her phone. She turned off the music and stormed out of the room. 

"Matt, I swear to God!" She shouted, chasing him across the yard. He yelped and tried to run from her, but she caught up. 

"Why were you watching me? You know I hate that!" She asked him, standing in front of his path. 

"What? Watching you? _No_ ," he said sarcastically raising his hands into the air as a sign of surrender. Katie just rolled her eyes and lightly punched him on the shoulder. "Don't let me catch you again."

"I won't," Matt said, rubbing his shoulder. 

Katie strolled back into the shed, picking up her phone and resuming the music. 

'The shed' is what Katie called her training room. It's where a metal hoop hung from the ten-foot ceiling, and where she did all her practice. She loved aerial arts, and auditions for the high school team were in October. She was determined to get on the team. 

She put some chalk on her hands and hopped back onto the ring. 

#_#

"How was it today?" Colleen asked, picking up a piece of broccoli with her fork. 

"It was alright, although I did fall once," Katie replied. 

"What level was it?" Sam asked. 

"Based on the training application, level 55," she replied, continuing to pick at her food. The family of four was sitting down at the dinner table, Baebae curled up by Katie's feet. 

"That sounds pretty high," Sam said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. Katie just shook her head. "I've done routines in the triple digits. That was nothing."

It was a warm evening. A couple windows around the family were open, letting a small breeze waft throughout the house. It was later in the evening, and the sun was beginning to set. 

The light wind lapped at Katie's hair, and she tucked it behind her ear. 

"Completely off-topic, but I was wondering if I could ask a friend over for the summer while you guys are gone," Matt added. Colleen and Sam stopped eating and looked at each other. They seemed to have a language worked out in eyebrow lifts and nods. 

The two seemed to have this sort of telepathy thing going on. Whenever one of the kids did something wrong, they would send each other brain waves through their weird expressions, without having to talk at all.

Katie and Matt just raised an eyebrow in confusion while the facial expressions on the two adults changed. Finally, they looked away from each other and back at Matt.

"One friend. That way Katie can continue her practice in peace," Sam said. Matt smiled and nodded, hopping up from his seat and grabbing his dishes. 

"I'm gonna go make a phone call then. Thanks!" Matt said, bonding out of the room. Sam just shook his head and chuckled. 

"Katie, you could bring a friend if you wanted to. I know you don't exactly approve of his friends," Colleen said, picking up her plate. Katie shook her head. 

"I'm good. Like you said, I need to practice in peace. Besides, Matt'll probably ask Shiro. He's not _too_ bad."

Colleen nodded, and the two adults left the room. Katie sighed and put her fork down in the middle of the plate. She leaned back into the wooden chair, her head facing the ceiling. She felt Baebae jump onto her lap, and she giggled. 

"We're gonna have a guest over. Make sure not to let them spoil you on treats," she told him, running her hand through his fur. He just wagged his tail and licked her face. She laughed.

#_#

The light from her window was bright. 

The kind of bright that could blind you in less than a second. 

And Matt just came in and pulled up her blinds. 

"Matt, what the frick was that for?" Katie asked, rolling over to face the wall. She covered her head with her blanket to hide the light. 

"Mom and Dad are gone."

Katie jumped out of bed faster than a rocket. She sprinted down the stairs to make sure he wasn't lying. 

"FRICK YEAH!" She shouted, plopping herself down on the couch. Matt came down the stairs and sat next to her. He was laughing. "You sound pretty excited."

"Are you kidding? I can stay up all night eating ice cream and Mom and Dad can't stop me. I MIGHT EVEN BE ABLE TO SWEAR-"

"No."

"What?! No, pleeeeeeeease let me Matt-"

"I said no. My only rules are no illegal activity and no swearing."

"Fudge you too."

"That's more like it."

Katie kicked her feet up onto the coffee table, placing her hands behind her head in a relaxed position. "So, who'd you ask anyway?"

Matt patted her on the shoulder. "You'll see. They get here at three."

Katie nodded. As she ate her breakfast and walked around the house to the shed, she thought about who it was gonna be. 

Shiro had been over multiple times. He was pretty chill. 

Rolo and Nyma had come over once, they were really weird. Katie really hoped it wasn't them. 

Adam had come one time with Shiro. He was okay. 

Those were the only people she could really think of him bringing. Anyone else would be totally new. But, there was only one of them. Which meant that she could still get plenty of practice in before auditions. 

But nothing would have prepared her for what walked into her shed at three that afternoon.


	2. And They Were Roomates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I like memes. 
> 
> So do some other peeps.

Keith didn't want to go anywhere for the summer. He didn't want to go to one of Shiro's friend's houses. He wanted to stay at home. 

But, for some reason, Shiro wouldn't let a 16-year-old be home alone for the whole summer. It made sense, but that didn't mean Keith had to be happy about it. 

The only good thing was the other two people that were coming with them. Two of his school friends, Lance and Hunk, were accompanying the two on their journey.

 _Four people?_ Shiro had asked over the phone, his voice in udder disbelief. That family must have a pretty big house.

And that was how Keith found himself squished in between two other teenage boys who were singing 'Chandelier' at the top of their lungs. 

He would have sat in the passenger seat, but it was broken. The entire back of the chair was gone. The car had gotten in an accident a few months prior, and Shiro couldn't afford the extra add-on to the bill to pay for the back of the seat. The loan had already been big enough, and the back of a passenger seat was more expensive than one would think. 

_We don't need it_ , he had said that day. Keith had just rolled his eyes at the grown-up and chuckled. 

So, Keith put his earbuds in, and started listening. The music in his ears drowned out Lance's horrible singing, and Hunk's high-pitched harmony. Keith let a small smile form across his face and leaned back into the leather cushion. 

The idea of going somewhere else for the summer wasn't new to him. And with Shiro coming as well, at least he had his only family. But going over to a friend of a friend's house was much different than changing apartments. 

Shiro had explained the setup to him. The master was off-limits, and so was the friend of a friend's sister's room. The living room and guest room were open. 

_What was that dude's name again? Mark? Mal? Matt?_ Yeah, that seemed right. Shiro had talked about this Matt dude a good amount. How they were really great friends in Garrison University. They shared almost all their classes, and Keith could remember a few times when the dude had come over to their apartment. 

Keith had never taken the time to actually get to know the guy. He only knew him as Shiro's friend. 

But Shiro had repeatedly mentioned Matt's sister. She was apparently around Keith's age. And Shiro thought Keith would like her. But Keith wasn't so sure. He had never really communicated well with girls, not even people. for that matter. 

Girls were so confusing. At least, the ones at Altean High were. They wore so much makeup it hurt your eyes to look at their faces. They spent so much time on their hair that they had to have been pulling allnighters all week long. And most of them were jerks. 

A couple, Romelle, Allura, and Shay, weren't too bad. They were actually kinda nice. They sat with Keith and Lance and Hunk during lunch. 

While Keith didn't engage in the conversation very often, he liked it when he didn't feel too alone. It was nice to have someone to sit with in each class, so he wouldn't have to feel awkward sitting next to a stranger all day. 

All of a sudden, Keith heard Lance and Hunk's singing come to an end. He opened his eyes and looked out the window. How long had he been listening? Then he realized there wasn't any music playing. 

"Guys?" Keith asked, confused. 

"Ah, he's awake!" Lance said, patting him on the shoulder. Keith just raised an eyebrow. 

"You've been asleep for the past four hours. We're twenty miles away from the house," Hunk said. Keith blinked. _Four hours? That's a long time._

The car was strangely silent. Only the slight revving of the engine could be heard throughout the car walls. 

"And they were roommates."

Lance interrupted the silence with a meme reference. 

"OH MY GOD THEY WERE ROOMMATES!" Hunk replied, and the four of them burst out in laughter. Well, Keith's was more of a glorified chuckle, but for the emo that he was it was impressive. 

"Can't go two minutes without quoting a meme," Shiro said from the driver's seat, shaking his head. Keith could see the dark circles around his eyes. The car ride had been a full eight hours, and he knew Shiro hadn't gotten any sleep the night before. 

At first, Keith had been worried about him driving. But then Shiro told him the roads didn't have much traffic on a Monday morning. And Keith knew that last night wasn't the first time Shiro had been up all night, and he had driven just fine before. 

But Keith couldn't help but feel a little bit of guilt. He hadn't yet started driver's training, and, if he was being honest with himself, he didn't want to. His parents had died in a car crash when he was young, so he was really paranoid and hesitant when it came to driving. 

It was stupid, he would always tell himself. Just because he had one bad memory of a car crash didn't mean that driving was scary. Besides, if he could learn how to drive, Shiro could get some rest. He wouldn't have to work so hard. 

But Keith couldn't bring himself to do it. 

"What do you have?!" Lance shouted, and Keith replied to this one. "A knife!" He shouted back, looking at the teen. Lance faked a horrified expression and screamed "No!" 

This sent the car in another fit of laughter. 

After another couple miles, Hunk scrolled down his window and stuck his head out. Lance did the same. The two started screaming memes at the top of their lungs to the outside world. There were very few other cars on the road, and not very many houses around, but it was still really funny. 

Keith got on his knees and stuck his head out of the sunroof, feeling the cold wind in his face. Even though the roaring of the wind filled his eardrums, he felt so peaceful. Hearing his friends shout memes, seeing beautiful country scenery fly by, feeling the crisp, clean air whip through his long black hair, it made him smile. 

Maybe this summer wouldn't be so bad after all. 

Keith joined Lance and Hunk, the trio bellowing meme references throughout the countryside. If anyone was outside at that time, they would have laughed. But Keith didn't see anyone outside. Even though it was a beautiful day, no one was visibly outside. 

But, then again, there weren't many people there. 

Heck, even Shiro joined eventually. A shrieking symphony on four wheels, barrelling down the highway. Any witnesses would have thought the four were insane. 

And who said they weren't?

After a couple miles, Shiro told the boys they were getting close, so everyone stopped shouting and rolled up their windows. The amount of actual houses increased, and they got off the highway and on to a small road that lead through the middle of a even smaller town. 

After that they turned onto a gravel road that continued through the first for a few miles, and then they arrived. The yard looked big enough to host a rodeo. There was a ginormous barn way behind the actual house, and a few gardens srinkled across the lawn. He could vaguely see the outline of a pond farther out behind some bushes.

It was the most green grass Keith had seen in a _long_ time. 

The four hopped out of the car, and left their stuff in the trunk of the car. They walked up to the front door that was in the middle of a huge porch. Shiro knocked on the door, and it shortly opened with a young man with light brown hair and brown eyes. He motioned for the four of them to come in, and they followed. 

"Glad you guys made it in one piece," Matt said, waiting for the boys to take off their shoes. 

"We were screaming memes all the way down the interstate!" Lance replied, putting his shoes on the shoe mat. Keith placed his sneaker next to Lance's. 

"Sounds like something I would do," Matt said, chuckling as if he were thinking of a memory. "Well, follow me. I'll show y'all where you're gonna bunk." 

The five of them went to the living room, where there were two couches. Lance and Hunk both called dibs on a couch. Keith just rolled his eyes as they flopped down on the sofas. Matt took Shiro and Keith to the guest room, where there was one full-sized bed. 

"I guess it'll be a tight squeeze," Matt said, trying to figure out what to do. "No, it's fine. I brought my sleeping bag, I can sleep on the floor in the living room. Those pillows looked pretty comfy," Keith said. 

"No, Keith. You get the bed, I-"

"Shiro, you need more rest regardless. I'm taking the floor." 

And with that, Keith walked out of the room. He talked with Lance and Hunk for a bit before Shiro and Matt came out of the guest room. Matt stood in front of the four. 

"There's one more thing. You guys need to meet my sister."

#_#

The five of them were walking towards the barn. Matt said she spent most of her time in here, practicing for...something. The ground was wet and muddy. It was obvious there was a recent rain. 

As the five got closer, they could start to hear something. It almost seemed to be drums, or something like that. There was a defined beat to it. As they got even closer, Keith could make out notes and a voice. 

Music drifted through the air. It was very different from the silence surrounding the rest of the lawn. \When they were only a few meters away, Keith was able to identify the song. 

It was 'Be Kind' by Marshmello and Halsey. He had actually listened to that song on the way to this place. 

But as they reached the barn, movement caught his eye. He looked closer through one of the dusty windows, although the view was very blurry. There seemed to be something spinning from the ceiling. It was getting wider, then smaller, then it was spinning faster. 

As the boys reached the door, Matt stopped Keith from opening the door. 'Look' he mouthed, pointing to the clear window on the door. The four looked through, and they gasped. 

There was a person hanging from a ring suspended from the ceiling. Keith could get a good look at her now. She looked really similar to her brother, with short brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a green crop top and some black sweatpants. 

She was almost _dancing_ across the ring. First she was hanging upside down, then she was doing the splits parallel to the ground, then she was flipping and catching herself with her hands, then she was spinning. And all of her movements were perfectly matched with the beat of the music. 

As the bridge of the song neared, the hoop seemed to lower closer to the ground. She danced across the floor, the ring clutched tightly in her grasp. She moved with such beauty and gracefulness, like she was just floating on air. 

The hoop raised again, now going around the room in a huge circle. With the wind running through her hair, she continued to dance. 

As the last line of the song echoed through the barn, she finished elegantly with a pose hanging off the ring. One of her feet was hooked around the bottom edge, the other pointing towards the ground. One hand holding onto the ring tightly and the other straight up towards the sky. 

Matt opened the door. The four boys walked in, but she didn't seem to notice. Her eyes were now closed. Matt closed the door behind him. 

"Pidge!" He shouted, causing the girl to open her eyes. She looked over to the group of boys who were looking at her with amazement. Lance started to clap, the loud sound filling the small room. 

But the sudden sound startled the girl. Her hand slipped, and her foot unhooked from the bottom of the hoop. 

The small girl hurdled towards the ground. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Memes are fun


	3. I'm Not Exactly A Social Butterfly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of a short one, but we get some human interaction. Yay.

Katie felt the rush of air blow through her hair. She felt the metal ring slip through her fingers. She heard the shouts of the people down below. _How many were there?_ It looked like three, not two. If Matt brought an extra person, she would freak out. 

_Probably just their ride. Mom and Dad said only one,_ she thought as her body fell through the air. She twisted her legs around to face to the floor and landed square on her mat. She brushed off her chalky hands on her sweatpants, knocking the dust onto the floor. 

Then she looked up. 

There weren't just three, there were _five_. 

The part that surprised her was that they all looked astounded at her little stunt. "Don't look too surprised, I've fallen from way higher," she said, placing her hands on her hips. "So, which one of you is the new guest?"

Matt stepped in front of the boys. "They all are," he said. His face held no trace of sarcasm or laughter. He was dead serious. 

"That's funny, Matt. Now, which on-"

"I'm serious."

"Wait, what?! _Four?!_ Matt, Mom and Dad said _one!_ " She shouted, the steady realization seeping into her. 

"I know."

"Oh, so I can't swear but you can ask three extra friends over? I'm calling Mom," Katie said, storming over to her phone. 

"Wait, Katie please wait," Matt said. She stopped walking and rolled her eyes. "What?"

"Can we make a bet?" He asked. Her head perked up at that statement. She slowly turned back to face him, smirking. "What kind of bet?"

"If you don't hate these four by the end of the summer, you can't tell mom. If You still hate them, feel free to rat me out."

Katie raised an eyebrow. She looked at the group behind her brother. 

The first one was Shiro. He wasn't bad. He could make some decent jokes. 

The next one was big and tall. He was wearing a yellow shirt and a green vest. He had chocolate brown skin, and either black or really dark brown hair, it was hard to tell from that far away. He had an orange headband on, and a big smile rode across his face. He gave her a friendly wave as she looked at him. 

The one after that was really skinny. He wore an olive jacket and a white shirt, and long blue jeans. His eyes were a bright blue, and his hair was dark brown. A smirk sat atop his face, a smirk that made Katie a bit uncomfortable. 

And then came the last dude. Katie couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he seemed different than the others. He had black hair, long enough where he had a mullet. He was wearing a red and white jacket over a gray shirt and black pants. His arms were crossed. 

But his eyes were the thing that really caught her attention. They were a deep violet, almost like the night sky. She swore she could even see stars in there. The whole dang solar system was shoved into those two irises. 

And _frick_ was he cute. 

"Okay, deal. But I don't have to unload the dishwasher while they're here." Katie said, turning back to her brother.

Matt sighed. "Okay."

The two sibling shook hands. 

"Now get out! Can a girl work in peace around here?" Katie said, shooing the boys out of the barn. 

"Get used to it!" Matt shouted as the door slammed behind him. Katie let out a sigh of relief. 

Maybe these boys wouldn't be too bad. They seemed pretty sane. And as long as they respected her practice schedule, it wouldn't be too big of a deal. 

Plus, she didn't have to unload the dishwasher. Added bonus.

#_#

"I told you not to! But you still jumped in!" A voice shouted from the dining room. 

"You know I don't listen! Y'all need to start holding me back from doing stupid things!" Another voice shouted back. 

Katie sat in the lounge, her feet kicked up on the couch. Her dinner plate sat on the cushion next to her, and her phone was in her hand. 

Unfortunately, there wasn't a door to the lounge. Katie could hear all the chatter from the boys. And they were a lot louder than she would have expected. 

She sent her text and tucked her phone back into her pocket, and looked up to see the cute kid standing in the doorway. 

"Oh, sorry. I didn't know anyone was in here," he said. He was holding a very empty looking plate. 

"You're fine," she replied. "Not eating with all your buddies?"

"I'm not exactly a social butterfly."

"Ay, me neither."

The dude sat down on the other end of the couch, his plate forgotten on the stand next to the arm. 

"What's your name?" She asked, eating the last little bit of her pizza. 

"Keith," he said, turning towards her. "Yours?"

"Katie," she answered, placing her empty plate on the floor by the foot of the sofa. "Where are you from?"

"Marmora."

"That's a bit of a drive from here. And a lot more populated."

"That it is. So, you like aerial arts?."

"I love it. One of the only things I'm good at."

"I take it you're trying for the Galra School of Dance?"

"How'd you know?"

"Our school is funding the tryouts. And a lot of our students are auditioning as well."

"You go to Altea High?'

"That's the one."

"Big school."

"Huge."

"Filled with popular rich kids?"

"You guessed it."

"Doesn't sound like you like it very much."

"Like I said. I'm not a social butterfly." Katie smiled. Maybe this Keith guy wasn't so bad. He reminded her a lot of herself. And she was really grateful she didn't have to go to a big fancy school like that. Nope, homeschooling did her just fine.

"Here you are, mullet! Guys! I found him!" The skinny blue dude shouted back to the others. He was walking through the doorway and sat down next to Keith. His glance turned to Katie. 

"Hey, how you doing?" He asked, that same smirk across his face. 

"Fine," she said, and sat up. She grabbed her plate and left the room, watching as the other three boys filed in. She dropped off her plate on the counter, and made her way out to the barn. There she would be alone. 

As she chalked up her hands and started the music, she couldn't stop thinking of Keith. He was cute, he was kinda funny, he didn't like people, he sounded like someone she could hang out with. And those eyes, oh God those eyes were beautiful. 

_What? Why are you thinking that? He's your brother's friend. Stop it. You don't like him._

She hopped up onto the ring.


	4. Introverted And A Tad Bit Salty

The floor wasn't as comfortable as Keith assumed it would be. Even with his sleeping bag and the many pillows Shiro had given him, it still felt like he was sleeping on a rock. 

He could hear the sounds of Lance and Hunk snoring. He stared up into the white ceiling. There was no way he'd be able to fall asleep with that noise and uncomfortable position. 

He sat up and made his way to the fridge, and poured himself a glass of milk. Once the glass was full, he put the jug back in the refrigerator. 

As he sat down on one of the dining room chairs, he thought once more about that girl. She was so short. Her hair was adorably messy. Her eyes were beautifully captivating. Even the small number of freckles upon her face were cute. 

And she wasn't half as bad as Keith thought she was gonna be. He knew a lot of selfish, rude girls at his school, and had set the bar pretty low. Even after just minutes of talking with her, he knew she wasn't that kind of person. 

She reminded him a lot of himself, feisty in her own little way, introverted and a tad bit salty. And she wasn't swooning over Lance like everybody else. That already showed she had a bit of common sense.

And she didn't seem to hate him. Which was good, because even though she was small she seemed quite intimidating. He made a mental note not to get on her bad side. 

Once he finished his milk, he put the empty glass on the counter and walked to the front door. He didn't really _want_ to go outside, but it was kinda stuffy in the house. The basement was off-limits because it was Katie's space. The main floor was really loud and warm, making it hard to sleep. 

So, he mustered up his courage and slipped on his shoes. A dee breath left his mouth as her stepped out of the safe house and into the darkness of the unknown. 

The ground was still a bit mushy, and the _squish_ made him a bit uncomfortable. The door shut behind him, and he quickly whipped out his phone for a source of light. The flashlight that shone from the back of his phone illuminated the grass so it was green, not just a blob of black.

He waved the light around for a bit until it landed on the old barn. 

_Bingo_. 

Criskets were chirping from all around him, and he could see some moths flying around in the unnatural light. Even when the yard gave him the feeling that he was gonna get kidnapped, it was still beautiful. There were still raindrops caught on untravelled blades of grass. 

He couldn't even imagine how beautiful this would be at dawn. 

The mud soaked into his shoes, but he didn't mind. He was now familiar with the lay of the land, and wasn't afraid. He knew where he wanted to go. 

As the wood of the barn drew nearer, he thought back to earlier that day. When Katie was doing all those moves on the ring. She looked so graceful, so talented. Without a doubt, he knew she would get a spot on the team. 

It was almost a no-brainer. 

He reached the pale imitation of a doormat, which turned out to be more of a skimpy rag. He opened the door, a loud _creak_ filling the whole shelter. 

He set his phone down and walked over to the light switch. From the simple motion of the small plastic tool, the entire room erupted in a blinding white light. During the day, this level of brightness would be normal. 

Not so much at midnight. 

Keith shielded his eyes from the sudden burst of light, and once his eyes had adjusted, he brought them back down to his sides. The room was pretty impressive. There were different attachments for the chain that hung from the ceiling, from silk strands to plain bars. She really had all the materials she needed. 

There was a mini set of bleachers off in one corner, obviously used and had gone through years of wear and tear. They looked so fragile, like a sneeze would make them break apart. A large mat sat in the center of the room, and a pit filled with foam cubes was in the far corner. There were various pieces of equipment and tools strewn over the floor and hanging up on the walls. 

It looked pretty legit. 

Then he noticed the remote control sitting on the lower half of the bleachers. 

He walked over to it, picking it up and examining it. It had a lot of buttons, each one had the label chipped at to the point where it was really hard to understand what they meant. 

But Keith had seen something like that before. 

He pressed a pink button near the top, and saw the chain lower. He walked over to the stash of equipment, and took the red silk strips from their resting place. He attached them to the chain, and raised the hook up into the air. 

Another button press and he watched as the red fabric ascended to the ceiling above. When the machines stopped whirring, he set down the remote control. He ran to the silk and leaped into the air. 

His hands caught on the fabric and held on tight, and he swung his legs up over his arms. He supported his body weight on his hands while his feet wrapped the silk around them. After they had a secure position, his hands let go and he plummeted toward the ground. His feet caught his weight inches from the ground, and the force caused him to start to spin. 

He separated his legs so they were in a split position, raising himself away from the ground. His hands went down to grip beeath his foot-holds and he sung himself further up onto the fabric. 

But, before he could do his signature finish, a voice interrupted him. 

A voice that shook him to the bone. 

_"What the fudge do you think you're doing here?"_


	5. Oh, But I Could Tattle-Tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Extra-long piece of shit for y'all today. 
> 
> A little disclaimer before we begin, I only recommend legal driving. You need a license in order to drive, and you should always be in a seat with a seatbelt on. Any other form of driving in this story is purely fictional and what I would do if I lived in the country. Please do not try what these characters do at home. 
> 
> Because like I've said, I am broke. I do not want to get sued. 
> 
> Anywho have fun reading

Katie woke up to a _squish_. 

It sounded like someone was outside her room. Like they were walking around in the middle of the night. She instinctively hopped out of bed and threw on some slides, grabbing a baseball bat and her phone. 

As the footsteps traveled away from her window, she silently tip-toed to the sliding door outside her room. She opened it carefully, watching the stranger outside move their flashlight around. They stopped moving it when they reached the barn. 

_Oh hell no, this dude ain't gonna go in my shed,_ she thought, closing the door behind her. Her footsteps were silent, contrary to the loudness of the stranger's. 

The intruder made their way to the door of the barn. Katie was fully prepared to attack them with the bat clutched in her hands. Then they opened the door. Then they turned on the light. 

_What the hell does this dude think they're doing?_

Katie was just about to ram into the door and go berserk with her weapon, but first, the figure moved. They replaced her ring with two silk strands. Her grip loosened in surprise. Were they gonna...do something?

Her confusion didn't last long as she watched the figure jump into the air, the strands clutched in their hands. They clearly weren't new to the concept of aerial arts. They could certainly move around on those things. At first, she was too shocked to move. 

_Did someone break into my shed to practice or something?_

She gathered her senses as quickly as she could, bursting through the door with her baseball bat in hand. "What the fudge do you think you're doing in here?" She said in the most intimidating voice she could muster. 

The figure gasped in surprise and lost their hold on the silk. They fell on the ground with a loud grunt. She stepped in to get a closer look. 

_"Keith?!"_

"The one and only," he responded, groaning as he sat up on the mat. "What the hell are you doing?" She demanded, crossing her arms. 

"Your brother said no swearing."

"Yeah, well, my brother's not here."

"Oh, but I could tattle-tale."

"And I could beat you up with a baseball bat." 

Keith rose his hands in surrender. "Fine," he said, working his way to a standing position. He looked over in her direction. "I couldn't sleep. I was bored. Sue a man for exploring."

"This is my shed," she said. "Really? We were in here earlier. You didn't seem to have a problem with that," Keith replied smugly. Katie feigned a gasp. "Is that some sass I'm detecting?" 

"And what if it is?" He replied, picking up his jacket from the floor where it had fallen. It was then that he noticed she was shivering. The girl was only wearing a crop top and shorts, she had to have been freezing. 

He dropped the jacket on top of her hair as he walked by, stopping at the door frame to look back. She gasped and slowly turned around to face him. "I am not your coat rack," she said with heavy sarcasm, picking the article of clothing off from her head and holding it out to him. 

He shrugged. "You look cold," he said, walking out back into the muck. He got to the opposite edge of the barn before he heard her running to catch up with him. This time, she was wrapped in his jacket. It was a bit baggy on her. It looked cute. 

"Not my coat rack, huh?" He asked, raising an eyebrow at her as they continued walking towards the house. "Shut up, mullet," she responded in a tiny voice. He chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh no, not you too."

As they approached the house, there was a small silence between them. Katie felt strange, surrounded by fabric she didn't usually wear. It was way too big for her, but it was warm. And he was right, she was pretty cold. 

The jacket smelled lightly of smoke and cinnamon. It was nice. _What are you fricking thinking? This is someone else's jacket. Stop smelling it._

"So, where are you stationed up there?"

"Floor."

"Pfft. Wow. Okay, so you're the unlucky one."

"Yep." Keith chuckled. 

"You know, there's a couch downstairs. You could sleep there if the floor is too uncomfortable."

"But isn't the basement-"

"My space? Yes it is. But you just made it clear that my space isn't really gonna be mine anymore. Besides, it's cold up there at night. I leave the fireplace on."

There was another small silence between the two. Once again, Katie felt strange. She just met this person, why was she offering him a spot in her place of solitude? Why was she sad that he stopped talking? 

"You know what, that sounds great. Thanks." He said, and they arrived at the sliding door. Keith opened it and Katie walked in. The temperature rose a good amount of degrees when the door closed and the warm breeze of the fireplace flew through the air. 

She was fully aware that she could take the jacket off now. But she didn't want to. Keith didn't seem to notice that she still had it on. But if he did see, he didn't care. 

She showed him to the couch by the fireplace and tossed him a blanket. He set up quickly and was under the covers before she could ask him if he wanted another layer. He was drowsy and almost fully asleep. 

_That was fast,_ she thought, smiling as she walking into her room. At the door frame, she sent one last look at the cute boy sleeping in her place of solitude. "Sweet nightmares, city boy," she whispered. 

#_#

"No, you're the dumbass! That was the perfect opportunity for blackmail!" Keith felt groggy as his eyes started to open. The sudden light temporarily blinded him, and he immediately closed them again. He felt warm, really warm. He wrapped up in something. Something soft. 

"You don't just take pictures of people while they're sleeping!" A voice shouted, the loud sound ringing in Keith's ears. 

"Not...asleep," he groaned quietly. Suddenly, two pairs of hands were grabbing his shoulders and hoisting him up to a sitting position. The movement made him dizzy, and his eyes slowly started to open again. 

"Do you have any idea what I just rescued you from?" Hunks voice asked. Keith started to regain his vision. Hunk was clutching his shoulders and Lance was hardly containing his laughter. "What?" He asked. 

"You sleep with your thumb in your mouth!" Lance exclaimed, his attempts at stifling his laughter diminished. He started to howl, and Hunk looked at him like he was crazy. 

"I do?" Keith asked, confused. "Lance was gonna take a picture and post it on social media. I just saved your life," Hunk explained. "Thanks, buddy," Keith said, giving Hunk a weak pat on the shoulder. 

"How did you sleep?" Hunk asked, doing his best to ignore the continuance of Lance's laughter. The truth was, he had slept great. This couch was _really_ comfortable. At least a million times better than the floor. And the fireplace made it nice and toasty. 

"Fine," he groaned, regaining feeling in his muscles. Hunk let go of his shoulders as he stood up and stretched his arms. It felt cold outside the blanket. 

"Pidge!" A shout came from upstairs. The three boys turned to look at the staircase, where Matt poked his head from the top. 

"The hell do you want?!" An angry voice came from the closed door next to the couch. 

"I said no swearing!"

"They say that in the bible!" 

"Get up here for breakfast!"

"What do we have?"

"Oatmeal!"

"No!" 

"Then go get something else!" Matt retreated from his spot on the staircase. Shuffling noises came from the other side of the door, and it burst open to reveal a very angry Katie. She bound up the stairs faster than the boys could ask her what was going on. 

But Keith noticed something. She was still wearing his jacket. 

"I had the last grocery run!" 

"Well, I'm perfectly content with oatmeal!" 

"Well, I'm not!" 

The three boys jumped when they heard a crashing sound from upstairs. They hurried up to the main level and were relieved to see the crash was only Matt closing the dishwasher. Katie stood in front of him, her arms crossed. 

Then Keith noticed something else. Not only was she wearing the jacket, but she had changed it. She was wearing a black spaghetti strap tank top with his jacket on top, but the collar of the jacket wrapped around her arms, falling off the shoulder. The zipper laid in the center, keeping the jacket closed and the contraption up on her body. Her black top was tucked into a pair of ripped jean shorts.

Okay. That was pretty cute. 

"Just go to Sal's or something," Matt suggested, drying one of the dishes in the sink. "Then I'm taking the truck," she said with a smile. 

Matt stopped what he was doing. "Katie. If you so much as scratch my car I swear to God-" 

"You know how carefully I drive. Have a good time eating oatmeal," she said smugly, grabbing a pair of keys from the counter. 

"You can drive?!" Hunk asked, revealing the fact that Matt and Katie were not alone. Matt jumped with a bit of surprise, but Katie just nodded. "Of course I can."

"But you're like fourteen!" Lance exclaimed. Katie put a hand on her hip. "I'm fifteen. Your point is?" 

Lance ignored the correction of age. "You can't legally drive!" Katie laughed. "You've really never been around here, have you? Everyone in this town knows I've been driving on the roads ever since I was eleven."

"She was actually a very good parker then," Matt added, and Katie giggled. "She's a smart little cookie. In the same grade as you guys."

"You're a junior?!" Lance and Hunk said at the same time. Keith barely had any sort of reaction. His energy was focused on not turning as red as a tomato at the moment. 

Katie nodded again and started walking towards the door. "Hold up," Matt said, and she groaned. "What now?" She asked him. 

"Take 'em with you," Matt said, pointing his thumb behind him at the three boys. "Why?" She asked. Matt sighed. "Because. They haven't seen the town yet. Besides, I don't think there's enough oatmeal."

Katie turned her attention back to the three boys. "Get dressed. Meet me by the garage in five," she said and walked out of the front door. 

The boys found their suitcases and changed quickly. Keith grabbed another red jacket from the bottom of the suitcase. He liked the other one better, but this would do just fine. Katie looked good in it. 

As promised, they were out the door in less than five minutes. Katie was already in the driver's seat with her arm out the open window. "Alright, which one of you is the most mature?" Both Lance and Hunk pointed to Keith, who raised his hand just a bit. 

"Okay. You get shotgun. You two get in the back." Keith walked around to the other side and hopped in the passenger seat. The car was old at best, but it had a quaint little look to it. There weren't scratches on the outside, but the inside was a bit of a mess. Keith looked back, expecting to see Lance and Hunk. 

But there weren't any seats. The only chairs in the car were taken by Katie and Keith. "Well, why are you waiting for? Hop in the back," she said, putting the keys in the ignition and twisted. She punched the dashboard a few times and the vehicle hummed to life. 

"Uh, there's no seats back here," Hunk said nervously. Katie rolled her eyes and leaned back in her seat. She opened her door and hopped out of the truck, walking to the back where the two clueless boys stood. 

"Up," she said, one hand on her hip and the other motioning to the bed of the truck. "What?" Lance asked, looking frightened. "I said, up," Katie said, impatience creeping in her words. Hunk and Lance reluctantly climbed into the bed of the truck, and Katie closed the small wall behind them. 

She walked back to the driver's seat closed the door behind her. "There." 

"Wait a minute, we're just gonna sit here?" Hunk asked, clearly concerned. 

"Guys, like _no one_ lives here. The roads are relatively smooth, you won't fall out if you hold onto something, and Sal's is ten minutes away. Calm the hell down." 

Lance and Hunk recoiled slightly from their positions, searching for something to hold onto. "Alright. I hope y'all have good life insurance," she muttered quickly and put the truck into reverse. There were a few shouts of surprise from the back and Katie just chuckled. 

She pulled the truck out onto the main road. She was right, it was relatively smooth. Even for gravel. Then again, the truck had giant tires and those probably helped. She drove down the relatively empty road for a few minutes. There were a couple houses here and there, but it was mostly grass and trees. 

After the first thirty seconds, Lance and Hunk realized they weren't gonna die. From there, they started to talk in the back of the truck, enjoying the freedom of movement that normal car seats restricted. Keith looked over at Katie, a smile on her face as the wind blew through her short brown hair. 

"So, you kept the jacket," Keith said, nudging her with his elbow. "Of course I did. It was comfortable, and you need to pay rent for the couch. It's a win-win. Besides, looks like you've got more than one."

"I'm not arguing, it suits you," he said, leaning on the door. He stuck one of his arms out of the window. The wind felt good. 

"What are they yelling about back there?" Katie asked him, looking in the rearview mirror to see Lance and Hunk leaning over the edge of the truck bed and shouting something. 

"Probably just memes," Keith said casually. Katie simply raised an eyebrow. He twisted around to face her. "Do you not know what those are?" 

At that, Katie perked up. Eyes still fixed on the road, she took her arm out of the breeze and took the wheel. She placed the other hand in front of Keith. "Phone."

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. Without even looking at it, she typed in her phone number and hit the call button. She handed Keith his phone back and fished hers out of the jacket pocket. 

She tossed her phone onto his lap. "What's this for?" He asked, picking it up. She put a finger to her lips. Then the call came through. 

The phone started buzzing with Keith's number at the top, then a sound played. Keith held it up to his ear to hear better. His eyes went wide. 

"You have the wii theme song as your ringtone?!" He exclaimed, declining the call and tossing Katie's phone back to her. 

"Yep. I love memes. Do not question my loyalty," she said, smirking. He chuckled. "We were shouting memes out the windows on the highway on the way here. Those two are probably doing it again," he said, glancing at the rearview mirror. The two boys were laughing. He smiled. 

"What are their names again?" Katie asked, finally tearing her eyes away from the road. "Oh, the smug one is Lance and the cinnamon roll is Hunk."

Katie nodded, returning her gaze to the road. "Got it. Y'all like waffles?" Keith nodded. "Yep. Waffles are awesome," he said. 

"Good. That's 'bout all we got here." 

Katie reached a stoplight and slowed the car. Without the hum of the engine, the two could hear Lance and Hunk's laughter. They were practically rolling around in the back. "Hey, could you two assholes stop shakin the car? I don't wanna die until _after_ I've had something to eat." 

Lance and Hunk scooted as close as they could to the fron of the car, sliding down the window that separated the group. "Sorry. I thought I'd already be dead by now," he said. Katie giggled and turned the blinkers on. "So did I," she said as she turned onto the next road. 

Now this was when Keith started to see some stuff. There was a small general store, what looked like some sort of flower shop, a couple restaurants, some clothing stores, an arcade, a car wash, and a gas station all lined up on the same small road. 

The sign at the intersection said 'Main Street', but Keith dared to think this might be the only occupied street. There was so much stuff packed in here, it made the other roads look barren and empty. 

Lance and Hunk stopped shouting the memes when they saw the greater mass of people. Keith half expected one of them to call the cops. People riding in the backs of trucks certainly couldn't be legal. 

But no one freaked out. They just pointed and waved with big smiles. It didn't look like they got many visitors. Lance and Hunk offered smiles and waves in return, but Keith did his best to hide. He didn't like that everyone was looking at them. 

Katie glanced at him, slouched over to try and hide behind the car door. She laughed and lightly punched his shoulder. "Sit up, you dumbass. They only do this the first time and we're almost there." 

He slowly rose from his place in the chair. They were moving too fast for him to get a good look at anyone, but Katie was right. People turned around, smiled and waved, then resumed what they were doing. They probably didn't even notice him. 

Katie rounded the corner at the end of Main Street and pulled onto another road called Quantum Lake Drive. She drove for maybe thirty more seconds until a diner came into view. 

It looked more retro than the other buildings, the classic black and white tiling and red stripes surrounded the walls. I giant lighted sign over the front doors read 'Vrepit Sal's'. 

Katie pulled into the parking lot and found the spot closest to the door. There were about half a dozen other cars there. 

She twisted the keys again and yanked them out of the car. Keith opened his door and the two exited the front of the vehicle. Lance and Hunk hopped over the side of the truck bed and landed on the blacktop. 

"Look. You're not dead," Katie said, smiling. "Dude that was so awesome! I've never ridden in the back of a truck before! You have so much more space!" Lance exclaimed, a goofy grin riding on his face. Katie smirked. "Told you."

The four of them headed inside. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Riding in the back of a truck sounds awesome and terrifying at the same time but I low-key wanna try it
> 
> 2\. Just like Pidge, my ringtone is also the wii theme song. That little snippet was a subtle brag ;)
> 
> 3\. If your school offers it DO NOT take Honors English. You can thank me later


	6. Who Pissed In Your Coffee?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps a familiar face?

The diner was smaller on the inside. 

Keith didn't really know what he had been expecting. The outside looked so large and bright, he expected the inside to match the energy. It didn't. Some light music played in the background, there were about a dozen booths pushed against the wall, and a couple of stools lined up at the counter. 

Katie walked over to one of the booths and motioned for the boys. They filed in, Hunk first leaning up against one of the big windows, Lance beside him, and Keith across from Hunk. Katie sat down on the end next to Keith. 

It had barely been five seconds before a "Pidge?" came from behind them. Katie looked up to see one of the waiters standing in front of them. He looked to be about her age, maybe a year older. A surprised expression rode on his face. 

Katie smiled and hit the table with her hand. "I knew it. I won the bet, you owe my twenty bucks!" She said, standing up and hugging the boy. He laughed when they parted. "Yep. I do. And you'll never let me forget it." 

The three boys exchanged a look of confusion. 

"I thought you weren't coming back till July! Why didn't you call me dammit," Katie said, lightly punching him in the shoulder. He chuckled and shook his head. "If I did that, you'd call the damn cavalry to welcome me home. I don't want that kind of attention," he said. She beamed at him. "What? No," she said with heavy sarcasm. "It's only been six fricking months, not like I missed you or anything." 

The boy blushed, and Keith couldn't help but feel just a little jealous. _Why was he jealous? He didn't even know this dude._ He cleared his throat, and the two looked back at the three boys in the booth. Katie seemed to realize that she hadn't come alone. 

"Oh, these are my new neighbors for the summer. The angsty one is Keith, the smiley one is Hunk, and the dumb one is Lance."

"Hey, how is he supposed to know that-"

"Got it," the waiter nodded. "Guys, this is my friend, Rover." The three of them nodded to him. "We don't get a whole lot of visitors. It's always nice to see a couple of new faces though. I'll get you guys some menus and be back in a few minutes." He walked back to the counter and came back with three large papers. Katie sat back down. 

"Why does everyone call you that?" Keith asked while skimming the list of dishes. The place had a wide variety of dishes, not just waffles like Katie had implied, but he could see why she thought that way. 

"Call me what?"

"I dunno, what did that guy Rover call you?" 

"Oh, Pidge? That's a...nickname of sorts." Keith chuckled, putting his menu down. "That's a weird nickname." 

"Yeah," Hunk replied, glancing over his menu at her. "How does one come up with something like that?" Katie shrugged. "I'm not sure, it must have been when I was small or something."

"You still are small," Lance added, not even glancing up from his. Katie sent him a sharp kick to the shin from under the table. 

"Well then, Pidge, what're you gonna order?" Hunk asked, placing his menu down on the table on top of Keith's. "My usual. Peanut butter chocolate waffles with bacon and eggs. You?" 

"The old-style omelet with hash browns," Hunk answered, smiling. "Good choice," Pidge said, "but don't trust the red sauce it comes with. Ask for that on the side." Hunk gave her a nod of thanks and she turned to Keith. "What about you, mullet?" 

Keith rolled his eyes at the name and pointed to the strawberry 'n cream waffles on the front page. Pidge nodded. 

Lance groaned. "Everything looks so good and I'm _so_ hungry. Thank you, by the way, for rescuing us from oatmeal," he said from behind his menu. Pidge laughed. "If you want a recommendation, the breakfast burrito is really good. Just ask for them to take out the onions, those give me weird vibes."

Lance chuckled. "You know what, why not?" He closed his menu and placed it on the small pile. Pidge reached forward to push the menus to the edge of the table. Rover came back after another five minutes to take their orders. Lance asked to cut the onions and Hunk remembered the red sauce. 

"So, what's Marmora City like?" Pidge asked. 

Lance was the one to answer first. "Everywhere you go there are lines for everything. Sometimes you have to wait two hours for a coffee in the morning" Hunk nodded. "The views at night are really pretty, there are lamposts everywhere to light up the sidewalk after the sun goes down," he explained. 

Pidge did her best to understand what they were talking about, but it wasn't easy. She was used to fewer people and more space to herself. She couldn't imagine not being able to ride around in the back of a truck. It sounded terrible. 

"No one's ever alone over there. Everyone always says if you're alone you're either gonna go insane or get mugged or something. There are groups of anywhere from three to three dozen people just walking around and crossing the roads. You have to be really careful not to hit anyone," Lance said, putting a hand on Hunk's shoulder. "This guy is our residential driver. He's an expert on not hitting civilians." 

Hunk nodded with a concerning amount of seriousness. "It's true. The air is clearly polluted and you can always smell... _something_. But it's not all bad. People are really nice, and there's always someone to help you if you need it. There's also a lot to do. Lots of buildings." Pidge nodded, a variety of images flooding through her head. 

"Got anything to say, Keith?" Lance asked. Keith shrugged. "Too many people."

"Very descriptive," Pidge replied, looking up at Lance. "But here's the question. Do y'all have a ravine?" 

Hunk and Lance look at her with surprise. "Ravine? Why would we have a ravine?" Pidge giggled. "It's not that out of the ordinary. Just a big ditch. It's fun to ride a mountain bike down." 

"There's a ravine here?" Hunk asked. Pidge nodded. "Of course there is. Only about a mile from here, further down Quantum Lake Drive. 'Round here we call it the Quantum Abyss." She explained, a slight sparkle in her eye. "As long as you start and stop at the safe places, you shouldn't die. And if you don't, it's one hell of a good time."

Hunk and Lance still had their mouths wide open, but Keith just chuckled. "Really? That sounds awesome."

Just then, Rover walked to their table and dropped off the four plates in their correct places. How he managed to remember the specific orders they made, Keith had absolutely no clue. But his waffles looked pretty damn good. 

"Hey Rover," Pidge said, "remember that winter at the Abyss?" Rover shook his head and smiled. "How could I forget? You made me slide down a mountain of ice in my shorts," he said. That got Lance and Hunk laughing. 

"Oh come on, it wasn't like that. Besides, wasn't it fun?" 

"Oh, hell yeah. The best thing I've ever done in my life. I might've been freezing my ass off, but it was awesome." 

"When does your shift end?" She asked as the other three started eating their breakfast. "Ten. I'll text you this afternoon," he said, and the two shared a fist bump before he walked away back behind the counter. 

"Okay, clearly this town has more stuff in it than it lets on. Why don't you tell us about it? I mean, we're spending all summer here," Lance said, taking a bite of his burrito. His eyes instantly lit up. He practically inhaled the rest of it right then. 

"Well, you guys have seen most of it. We've got the Quantum Abyss, Quantum Lake with an awesome cliff jumping spot that no one else knows about, the Naxzela Caves which are a lot of fun to explore at night, the equivalent of a town square, a couple of restaurants, Sal's, Varkon's General Store, and Olkarion Hospital. Those are probably the biggest things," she explained. She took a forkful of her waffles and shoved it in her mouth. 

"Well. This should be an interesting couple of months," Keith said. The three of them continued to eat, making small talk as the sun rose higher into the sky. 

Pidge had to admit it, she was already enjoying herself. These guys weren't like the people she thought they were gonna be. She had envisioned snobby rich popular city guys to waltz in and act like they knew that place. 

A crashing sound of dishes resounded in the small space. All eyes flew to the counter where a teenage girl stood with a sole plate in her hand, a poorly prepared omelet and a shit ton of dishes on the floor. Pidge didn't recognize the signature shape of the egg dish, which brought her to a horrible realization. 

"Sal!!" She shouted above the noise. "Yeah?" A large, burly man emerged from the kitchen and looked down at the mess on the floor. He sighed and grabbed a broom. "What's up, Pidge?"

"You let Axca cook?! Who pissed in your coffee?" She said, standing up and grabbing a mop from the closet. She and Sal mopped up the mess and collected the dishes. "I don't know, girl. I must've been insane or something," and the two of them laughed. 

Keith, Lance, and Hunk were just silent. They could barely believe their ears. Axca? Like, Axca Blades? Probably the most popular girl in Altean High? They knew her as the kind of girl to beat up someone in the alley, not to be working at a small town diner. 

"How's practice going for you?" Sal asked Pidge when they were done. "Alright, Matt invited four people over for the summer though so I'm not really sure how well that's going to look."

"Four people? My, that's a handful. Just know that my money's on you. I put fifty bucks into this thing, try not to let me down," he said, laughing. She placed a hand slowly over her heart. "I am honored that you would bet fifty dollars on me," she said slowly, a smile riding on her face. Sal patted her on the back and she shouted back to the kitchen. 

"Acxa! My payoff starts now!" She shouted and returned to the table. The three boys were still dumbfounded. "Um, hello? What happened to you guys? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I'm pretty sure I just did."

The same teenager as before emerged from the kitchen doors and stomped her way to the table where Pidge sat. Her face was red and her eyebrows were furrowed together in anger. "What did you say?" She didn't even notice that three of her classmates were sitting right in front of her. 

"I said my payoff starts now," Pidge said, a proud smirk on her face. "You can't just do that," Acxa said, shaking her head. "Hey Sal!" She shouted again. "Yeah?" Sal responded from behind the kitchen doors. 

"Do you maybe wanna remind your employee how long she signed up for three weeks ago?" Acxa opened her mouth to reply, but quickly shut it. "Three months, I reckon!" 

"That's right. Three months of Sal's. You bet it, you pay it. Now. Here's your first bill," Pidge said, handing her the piece of paper she took from the counter. 

Axca looked up at the group. Her face went white. "Kogane, Garrett, McClain, I will end you myself if you tell anyone about this." Her voice was low and clear, anger and embarrassment lined her words. 

Before she could blink Lance whipped out his phone and snapped a picture of her. "Oops," he said, shrugging. Axca gasped and ran from the table, the three boys laughing. 

"What was that all about?" Pidge asked when they calmed down a bit. "Axca goes to our school. She's like, the main boss bitch. She treats everyone like shit. No one stands up to her because no one can beat her," Lance explained, and Pidge laughed. 

"No one can beat her? Wow, your school must be filled with a ton of damn wimps." She said, forking her last bit of waffle into her mouth. "What do you mean?" Hunk asked. 

"The girl came here to work last summer to make a bit of money on the side. Apparently this was far enough away from her home she didn't think anyone would notice her. She made this big bitch move by flipping me off when I called her an ass. I told her that was a shitty move and flipped her off too and then she punched me," Pidge said, placing her hands on the table. 

"Wait a minute, she punched you?" Keith asked, a bit of anger flaring in his veins. Pidge giggled again, shaking her head. "She's got such a weak arm. It felt like a noodle was slapping me. So, naturally, I punched her back. A couple people watched us brawling from the sidelines, most of them were cheering."

The three boys look surprised. A limp noodle? Then why was Axca so strong and confident at school?

"Correction."

"They were rooting for me."

"And who won?" Hunk asked, anticipation lining his features. 

"Uh, who do you think?" Pidge asked, acting slightly offended he would think anything different. "And now she's paying for three months of my Sal's."

Lance howled and held out his hand. Pidge slapped it in a rough high-five. "Dude, no one at school ever stands up to her! I can't believe this!" 

"I can't believe you guys are so surprised. I drive a truck and flip around in the air, why is kicking Axca's ass so special," Pidge asked, crossing her arms. 

"All the girls at our school wear a shit ton of makeup and hairspray and all that. I don't think they'd fight anyone if it meant smearing their mascara," Keith told her. 

"Ew. Sound like a bunch of girly bitches. There are times when I'm glad to be homeschooled."

"You're homeschooled?"

"You think there's enough people for an actual school in this town?"

"Good point."

Pidge watched as the boys finished their meals. Lance wiped at his mouth with a napkin. "Okay, I might just come here to eat every day. This has got to be the best food I've ever had."

"Acxa's family is rich as hell. Eat here as much as you want," Pidge said, standing up from the booth. The boys followed her outside the diner, all four of them offering their thanks Sal who was sitting behind the counter. 

As they left the restaurant, Hunk held his hand out. "What?" Pidge asked, looking at his fingers with confusion. "Keys," Hunk said shaking his hand a bit. Pidge shrugged and dropped the keys in his hand. Hunk climbed into the driver's seat and put the keys into the ignition. He twisted the keys and waited for the car to start. 

When nothing happened, he turned to Pidge for guidance. 

"Just punch the dashboard!" She shouted to him. Lance and Keith had already climbed in the bed of the truck. Lance held his hand out to help Pidge up inside, but she swatted it away. In one swift movement, she kicked out her foot, pushed off the tire, and leapt over the side wall. 

She landed neatly and sat across from the two boys. 

"Where are we going?" Lance asked, not really sure if Hunk or Pidge was the right one to direct the question to. 

"We don't have to pick up groceries right now. If you wanna take the truck on this road and take your second right, we can just drive for hours. All it is is scenic shit," Pidge told Hunk, and she saw his head bob through the window. She reached over and pulled down the glass separating them so he could hear her better. 

"Haven't even been here a whole day and we're already going on a joyride," Lance said. "Seems a little rushed. Didn't you like, hate us yesterday?"

Pidge shrugged. "Y'all aren't the worst assholes I've ever met and summer goes by way too quick so why the hell not," she said. 

"I'm not sure whether that's a compliment or an insult," Keith said with a chuckle. 

"Me neither," Pidge added with a chuckle of her own. 

The four of them sped down the gravel roads. Hunk stuck his head out of the window, while Pidge Keith and Lance stood up in the back. They held onto the top of the truck so they wouldn't fall out. 

The air was nice and crisp at this time of day. It really felt like you were flying. With the wind blowing through your hair, the sun chasing you up the hillside, and the beautiful scenery the city could never offer, it really felt like a dream. 

They had only spent one day together. Just one. But it felt like they'd been there for weeks. To the boys, this was nothing like they had ever experienced before. In the city, no one could drive freely like this or talk about fist-fights without a second thought. 

**_It was dark. It was scary. There were rules and alleged limits, but this was downright horrific._ **

This town was more than just a place, it was a community. People knew and trusted each other. It wasn't strange to hear gossip or rumors, but people were still kind and caring. 

**_No one could trust them. They couldn't even trust each other. They lived in a world of lies and betrayal._ **

For Pidge, she didn't really know how to feel.

**_She couldn't feel_ **

She had never really been good at making friends before. 

**_Where were her friends?_ **

And as she breathed in the fresh air, she dared to dream.

**_She had to be dreaming. This couldn't be real._ **

That maybe...

**_Maybe_ **

Just maybe...

**_Just maybe_ **

This could be...

**_If she closed her eyes_ **

A new beginning.

**_It would all_ **

**_Go_ **

**_Away_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "What is all of this bold stuff? Why does it sound so depressing?"
> 
> *jazz hands* And that's on poorly planned foreshadowing


	7. Will You Look At That, I'm Not Dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not approve of this kind of driving or riding of cars. Do not try at home. 
> 
> Also I think I spoiled you guys on having updates daily yeah that's not gonna happen anymore. We are now up to date with my Wattpad updates so patience will now be required.

Maybe the country wasn't so bad. 

Keith had gotten fairly familiar with the idea of having more space. In the city, no one was allowed to ride in the back of truck beds or slide down ravines. It wasn't nearly as oud out here in the afternoon sun. 

The group made an unspoken decision that breakfast was big enough to count as brunch, therefore they didn't need to go get any food for a little while. They could just enjoy the countryside for a bit. 

In all the time Keith spent in Marmora City, he had never taken the time to step back and admire the city for the beauty that it was. He took the benefits for granted way too often. He wouldn't make the same mistake in a town like this. 

This is what those calendars were showing. When they had pictures of forests and grassy meadows and sunsets on the beach. The most scenic thing Keith saw in Marmora was the "park" in the town square with a good 8 square feet of greenery. 

It seemed impossible to him that two completely different areas could even be on the same planet. These surroundings were foreign and surreal, but beautiful all the same. 

After a good hour or so, Pidge finally spoke up. "Hey, you might wanna take a left here. There's a really pretty waterfall and overlook thingy," she said, pointing to the next intersecting road. Hunk nodded and veered off to the side. 

The three in the back had to hold on tight so as not to fall off. Riding in the back turned out to be easier than the boys thought it would be, but turning was still dangerous. Especially while standing up. 

"One sec, this part's hard to drive through," Pidge said, letting go of the top of the truck and grabbing a crate she pushed it near the front of the car and stepped onto it, the newfound height allowing her a better point of view. 

But she still couldn't see. 

"What's wrong?" Keith asked, confused. "I need to be able to see this part, there's a bunch of different roads here," she explained, stepping down and reaching into the crate. She pulled out two small pieces of rope and stood back onto the crate. 

She reached over to the very top of the car and found what she was searching for. Two small handles jutted up from the top of the vehicle, they had attached them when they first started building the barn and it helped transport materials. 

She looped the ropes around and tied the tightest knots she could manage. She wrapped the excess rope around her wrists and pushed off the crate. She hopped onto the roof of the truck, the ropes giving her a firm hold. 

Okay, _now_ she could see. 

"Um, are you sure that's safe?" Lance asked in concern, both boys looking at her with astonishment. 

"Hell no, that's the fun of it," Pidge shouted back, crouching down. She was kneeling on the top of a moving car relying on two pieces of scrap metal and cheap rope to keep her from falling. Maybe not the best plan, but it worked. 

"I'm gonna give tell you right or left, and that's the way you turn, understand?" She told Hunk through his open window. They were coming up on the part of the road shaped like more a labyrinth than anything else. She knew what ways to go to get to hundreds of different places, but these guys were new. 

The gravel roads, which were really more like trails at this point, separated like a delta in front of them. Pidge tightened her grip on the ropes and smirked. 

This was the fun part. 

"Right!" She shouted, gripping onto the left rope to keep from falling. Keith and Lance sat in the back clinging to the wall. "Left!" Another sharp turn sent Lance rolling across the bed. The walls were much too tall for him to fall over, but he still let out somewhat of a girly shriek nevertheless.

Keith seemed unfazed by the sudden movement. "Left!" His head bobbed with the movement of the car, but his expression didn't change. "Right! Left!" Her voice rang out through the forest, birds scattering from the trees. 

Lance watched in amazement as flocks of birds erupted from the bushes and leaves around them. They were like snowflakes in winter, the ones that flew off the windshield before making contact. The sound of rapidly flapping wings surrounded the group. 

It was breath-taking. All of it. 

"Left! Right! Right!" Pidge continued to shout, and Hunk made the turns with ease. The car swayed gracefully, lightly swinging back and forth. Those giant tires were really coming in handy. 

"Center!" Pidge said as they approached the final crossroads. 

"Break when you see the red flag, brace for the stop!" Pidge shouted, pressing herself closer to the roof and strengthening her grip on the rope. Both Keith and Lance gripped onto the wall tightly, Lane's knuckles were white. 

The line of trees broke in a clean line, a red flag coming into view. Hunk slowly stepped on the brakes, slowing the truck considerably. They might not have been moving very fast, but the actual stop had a lot more force when you were riding in the back of a truck. 

Pidge clenched her eyes shut as all of her energy channeled to her hands. _Don't you dare fall off, that would be so damn embarrassing,_ she thought to herself. She could hold on. She was strong. 

When Hunk hit the brakes, Pidge slid forward only a few inches. Keith stayed grounded in his position, but Lance completely flopped onto the truck bed. The other three of them laughed as he gathered his senses. 

Pidge let go of the ropes and stood up on top of the car. "Will you look at that, I'm not dead," Keith and Lance hopped out of the back. "Why do you sound disappointed?" Keith said chuckling. 

Hunk exited the vehicle, and the three of them started to walk towards the signs. There a small fence and a platform of blacktop overlooking the waterfall. They could hear the sounds of the hundreds of tons of water crashing down to the surface below. 

When they seemed to register the short girl wasn't walking with them, they turned back. "You coming?" Hunk called to her. She was kneeling down and untying the ropes from the car. She had every intention of driving them out of that maze, so there was no use in making Matt suspicious. 

"One sec," she said, tossing the ropes down onto the bed and standing back up. She hopped off the roof and landed square on the hood. She pushed off with one foot and leapt into the air, front-flipping neatly and landing softly on the gravel, and ran to catch up with the boys. 

Lance look quite surprised she did that with such ease. Pidge just rolled her eyes. 

The group stood at the fence, looking down at the water below. Mist rose into the air and clung to the atmosphere. It was quite refreshing. Watching the crushing weight of water cascade down the countryside over and over and over again. 

Even with the deafening sound, there was something peaceful about it. All the wandering thoughts filling their heads were frozen in place. Maybe it was amazement, maybe it was beauty. Nobody really knew, and nobody needed to. They were content just _being_. Watching. Living. 

There was a drawn-out silence. 

No one really felt privileged enough to cut the silence. It wasn't awkward or anything like that, more peaceful than anything else. Serene. Something the boys didn't experience enough in the city. 

For just a moment, the world seemed to really slow down. The landscape around them bloomed with a new light of day, but the brightest one shone from their eyes. Joy had the sun beat in that contest. 

An amount of time passed by. Thoughts wandered mindlessly in the chasm of the world, but none surfaced. They went crashing down with the rest of the waterfall. The hands of the clock spun with the droplets, flew like the mist. 

Time was everywhere, but it was also nowhere. The boys couldn't tell what was passing and what was standing still. It was all so...different. Strange. Not that the change wasn't good by any means, just sudden. 

At some point, Pidge snuck the keys from Hunk's hands and slowly retreated to the truck. She hopped in and turned on the engine. Even with the loud noise, the three boys didn't even turn around. She twisted the car around with a sequence of turns so that the truck bed was almost touching the asphalt. 

It was her shout that broke the boys out of her trance. "Stop drooling, you assholes!" Maybe the boys weren't privileged enough to break the silence, but she definitely was. 

As if freed from their imaginary reigns, they once again gathered their surroundings. One by one they hopped into the back of the truck. Keith seemed to second guess his decision and jumped out a moment later. 

He opened the passenger seat door and climbed in, placing the ever-so-necessary seat belt around his body. 

"Are you chickening out there, mullet?" Lance asked him from the back, his voice a bit muffled through the small opening in the glass. "I don't want you to fall on me again," Keith said, leaning against the door. Pidge chuckled as she closed her door. The hum of the truck loudened as the vehicle lurched forward and slowly started moving. 

Small chatter came from the back of the truck, but most was inaudible. The two teens sat in the front, silence lingering between them. The lack of sound was thick and heavy, it had some gravity. It was almost difficult to navigate. A dense fog filled the small space. 

Neither of their eyes traveled to the other, but instead back to the scenery. 

What should they say? There wasn't anything to really talk about at the moment, the boys had clearly expressed their thoughts with awe at the waterfall outlook. 

Pidge didn't want to sound nosy. She didn't want it to seem like she was trying to pry into places she shouldn't be looking. There was no immediate small talk. This was a new experience for her, the whole meeting new people thing. In her town, everyone knew everyone and there were no strangers. 

Not that Keith was necessarily a stranger, he knew Shiro who knew Matt. A friend of a friend. And it wasn't like he was weird or anything, Pidge actually found herself liking him a bit. He reminded her of herself, something not many people could do. 

And it was fun to see their reactions to things that were completely normal to her. Seeing a sunset in all it's beauty was really just part of her nightly routine. Waterfalls were casual picnic scenery. All of this seemed to be foreign to the boys. 

Breaking the ice hadn't ever been her specialty, but she would be damned if the rest of the drive was gonna be shrouded in silence. 

"So, last night," she said, not taking her eyes off the road. The truck swayed back and forth on the turns of the delta, much less violent now that the driver was experienced with the route. 

"What about it?" Keith asked, not removing his eyes from their position either. 

"Um, I dunno maybe the fact that I'm clearly not the only one here who's done aerial arts before," she said sarcastically, a little roll to her eyes. 

Keith nodded. "Congratulations on your observation skills," he said, smiling. She chuckled a bit, nudging him with her elbow. "Seriously, you've got technique," she commented. At that, Keith turned to her. 

"Really?" He asked, surprised. "Yeah. I've been at it long enough to sot some talent. Your starting position was poor and the first jump was a bit sloppy, but you've definitely practiced before. Plus, you're style matched that of many online videos I've seen from Romelle's Studio."

"That's where I practiced," Keith said, interrupting her. 

"As I just said, I know. But I guess I didn't let you finish. Kinda wanted to see how you would end it," she said, getting a good look at the side mirrors to make sure there were no upcoming cars. The truck swayed as Pidge steered it onto the meadow grass. 

Without question of their redirected course, Keith nodded. "I've got my own little signature ending. It's kinda stupid though," he said. Pidge shook her head. "No, I've seen stupid. I know what stupid looks like. You didn't look stupid up there," she said, ignoring the shouts of question coming from the back. 

The truck bounced a little on the coarse ground, the occasional big rock shaking the vehicle. "Why are we not on the road?!" Lance shouted, his voice finally seeming to reach Pidge's ears. 

"Shortcut, just hold on," Pidge responded. Hunk and Lance crawled to the front of the truck bed, their heads right up against the glass. 

"It's nice out here."

That caught Pidge a little off guard. "I thought you liked the city," she responded quietly. "Yeah, but the city doesn't have stuff like this, waterfalls and ravines and shit like that, you know? A change of scenery is nice every once and a while."

Pidge smiled. "Well, this is all normal to me, but I'm glad you enjoy it. Wouldn't wanna get stuck in a place you dont like for the whole summer now would you?" She said, glancing back at Hunk and Lance in the back. "What about them?"

"I dunno, but they look just about as impressed as me. I think that speaks for itself."

Pidge nodded, slowing the truck just a bit. As long as they weren't bored out of their minds here, maybe she could like them. Maybe she would lose this bet. But that would be alright, she didn't always have to win. Besides, having company might end up being...fun. 

#_#

"Did you get any groceries?"

"Hell no, get 'em yourself," Pidge told her brother as the four of them walked in the front door. Matt rolled his eyes and watched them head straight down into the basement. 

It ended up being a relatively simple afternoon. Matt went to the grocery store with Hunk, who insisted on coming because apparently he could cook, and returned shortly before dinner time. Pidge would find out later that evening that Hunk could, in fact, cook. Very well. 

The six of them enjoyed homemade lasagna while watching television that night, and stayed up to enjoy the sunset. The large amount of windows throughout the house gave great views of the setting rays of the sun. 

Small talk wandered through the living room after the TV was turned off. It was a very comfortable environment. Being able to openly be herself, Pidge felt a bit safer in front of these guys than she did with most other people. Granted, she knew most people around here. She wasn't an unfamiliar face to anyone around this town. But this kind of interaction, this was different. 

The conversations drew out long into the night way after darkness settled in, and at some point, the group started playing never have I ever. There were many laughs, lots of shouts, and a warm feeling spread throughout the house. These were good times, fun times, times to remember. 

And considering she had three more months with these boys living in her house, that wasn't a bad thing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again apologies for the wait, I've been having some writer's block recently
> 
> BUT
> 
> Today I got some inspiration bc I got an A in Honors English bitchessss and that is something to CELEBRATE so I figured I'd publish
> 
> Happy end of mid-terms week and have a happy holidays! 
> 
> Or don't ;)


	8. Maybe Bowser's Just Bad Luck

In all reality, Keith shouldn't have been surprised that Pidge was good at video games. Then again, there seemed to be very few things that she _wasn't_ good at. But this one was Keith's fault. He should've seen it coming. But he didn't, of course. 

And now he was getting his ass handed to him in Mario Kart. 

"Okay, I think we can collectively agree that Keith is a really bad driver," Lance said, laughing as the "Last Place" banner popped up on Keith's section of the screen. Keith just rolled his eyes and lightly punched the teen next to him, earning a high pitched "Ow!" That only caused more laughter. 

It had been a week since their initial arrival at the town, and by now they had begun to form a fondness for the tiny place. The new views never ceased to amaze them, even the ones that weren't really new but kinda looked like it. Sunrises were cherishable at the least. Lance made sure to document every single day and post it all on his social media page, which Pidge was shocked to discover had thousands of followers. 

Exploration didn't take long in a place like this. There were very few places to go, but each one was different in its own little way. The boys had discovered that the town bore no actual name, as its residents believed it didn't need to. 

It had only been seven days. They couldn't know everything, right? That's sure what it felt like, though. It felt like they'd been there for months. It had that kind of effect. 

One thing that Keith never failed to notice was the fact that Shiro never came with them on their adventures. He always stayed behind with Matt. Maybe they went somewhere, maybe they didn't. It was just strange to part from him daily without an explanation. 

But one thing that didn't surprise him was how quickly Pidge fit into their group. He had spent his whole life with Lance and Hunk, and Pidge just clicked with them. Like the puzzle piece they didn't even realize was missing. He hadn't expected her to open up so fast, but she was literally quite full of surprises. 

He had some feeling that she would fit in at Marmora. A selfish part of him wanted her to come back when the summer was over. He knew it was wrong, she had lived in such a rural, spaced-out area for her entire life and he wanted to take her to a people-infested downtown. Even he didn't like it there, so what gave him the idea she would? 

She was different, he could give her that. She was like to girl he had ever met before, and he liked it. He liked the fact she didn't sound like a helium-sucking cheerleader or a bossy student council member. She was a mix between a tomboy and a dancer, and he was comfortable with that. 

Comfort. What a selfish thought. That he would seek _comfort_ out of something like this. He was supposed to be having fun, so why was he reaching for places and people he felt _comfortable_ around? Why couldn't he just have _fun_?

That might explain his current situation. 

"He's right, you know. One would think after four games you would get the hang of it," Pidge piped up, smirking at her gold ribbon. They had been at the Cosmos Arcade for almost four hours, and Keith hadn't yet placed anything higher than last. 

"Maybe Bowser's just bad luck," Keith said, selecting the 'New Game' tile on the screen. The group groaned but complied, selecting their respective characters. They collectively knew Keith just wanted to prove himself, they knew he was a bit embarrassed. And they didn't really mind playing again and again so long as they could beat him. 

Which evidently wasn't much of a challenge. When the first race out of the set ended, Keith let out a low groan at the all too familiar last place pop-up. That same groan would repeat four more times in the next ten minutes. 

"Alright city boy, I think it's time to put it up for today," Pidge said, placing her controller on the rack. Hunk patted Keith's back and gave him a thumb's up, resulting in no change in the emo boy's emotion. He had placed last for four hours, and you could tell. 

Once the controllers were taken care of, the boys went to the counter to cash in their tokens. Lance picked out a giant pixie stick claiming that he was most definitely going to get high off sugar later that night. No one questioned him. Hunk chose one of the tiny stuffed animals and got Keith a fun-size candy bar. Keith was very grateful. 

Pidge plopped her tickets down on the counter and the cashier stowed them in a box. "What are you gonna get?" Keith asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm saving up. Have been for years," Pidge said, motioning for the three of them to follow her out of the building. 

"Saving for what?" Lance asked, his pixie stick in tow. "Motorcycle."

That got the boys to stop in their tracks. 

"A motorcycle? What kind of an arcade prize is that?" Pidge laughed. "It's not a prize. The owner of this place owns an old motorcycle that he doesn't really use anymore. He told me if I worked up enough tokens I could keep it for parts and shit. Maybe I could fix it up, get it to ride again or something. That'd be kinda cool."

She kept walking, and the boys followed. As they neared the truck, Hunk spoke up. "Keith has a motorcycle."

"Really? City boy's got a motorcycle?"

"I have a name."

"And I'm choosing not to use it." Keith rolled his eyes and hopped into the front seat, leaning back in the chair. "Yeah, I've got a motorcycle. What about it?"

"Nothing, that's just cool. Didn't know you could drive."

"He doesn't drive anything other than that stupid bike, he's never driven a car in his life," Lance said from the ground, hoisting himself into his usual corner of the truck bed. Hunk followed shortly after, but Pidge hesitated at the door. 

"Is that so? Well then, no better time than now. Give it a whirl," She told Keith, pointing to the wheel. Keith laughed, expecting a joke. He looked over to her face, but no trace of sarcasm laid there. No, she was serious. And Hunk and Lance were smiling at him, encouraging him. 

His eyes slowly fell on the steering wheel. No. No, he couldn't drive. He couldn't even try. How could he tell them that? 'No, I can't drive because I'm afraid of ending up like my dead parents'. He would look weak, scared. No, he couldn't say that. Not now. 

"Um, I think it'd be better if you just drove," He said. 

"Oh, come on. It's not scary, it's just a road. Wouldn't kill you to try," Pidge insisted, circling the vehicle. Keith could feel his heart beat faster. She wasn't listening. This wasn't good. 

"I'm serious let's just go home," he said, shaking his head. 

"Really? Are you too wimpy to drive a _car?"_ She asked, giggling. 

Okay, that was too much. That was too far. 

He didn't say anything. He didn't even look at her. He slowly reached his hands over to grip his seatbelt and pulled it down the buckle. A small _click_ filled the silence. 

Now that was strange. Pidge raised an eyebrow, placing a hand on her hip. Keith never buckled in. Neither did she. They didn't need to. There weren't any cars on the roads and they all knew Pidge was a damn good driver. 

Which meant something was wrong. Which meant _she_ did something wrong. 

She had pushed too hard. 

_Shit_

She immediately circled the trick again and hopped into the driver's seat. She turned the vehicle on and punched the dashboard till the hum filled her ears. 

The drive home was quiet. She parked in the garage and sat still as Keith exited the truck. She didn't follow him. He wouldn't want her to. 

#_# 

Keith opened the door to Pidge's shed. He knew he'd find her here, spinning upside down in the splits looped around her metal hoola hoop. Her music was in wireless earbuds this time. She did that when she wanted to disappear from the world. Leave no trace of her existence. 

He had similar ways of shrinking into the shadows. He knew how she felt. 

He walked over to the bleachers, managing stealth enough to keep out of Pidge's view. He put in her other earbud and paused the music on her phone. That caught her attention. Her head snapped out of place to face him, a sigh coming from her mouth. 

The ring lowered and she flipped into a sitting position. 

He had watched her in that last week. She had serious talent, a skill that everyone back at Marmora lacked. And he could tell that she knew that. She didn't brag, necessarily, it was more like showing off. She sparkled in her imaginary spotlight whenever she snuck away to practice. 

Keith could hear when she left during the night, he slept right next to the door. Most times he would follow her and give her tips during her routines, but sometimes he watched from afar. After making such a big deal about needing to practice, he didn't really see a whole lot of truth there. She would make the team no problem. 

At first, he didn't really know why he came. But then, he really thought about it. And he knew. "Hey," he said, tossing her phone to her. She caught it with ease, her face falling. "Hey."

"So."

"I was a bitch."

"Yep."

"God, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed you-"

"No. You shouldn't have. But you were right." 

Pidge raised an eyebrow at him. "I was?" She hadn't been expecting that. She was fully prepared for a damn slap in the face, it was what she deserved. She lost track of how sarcastic and pushy she was sometimes, she didn't always realize what was offensive and what wasn't. But this, this was weird. She didn't like this. 

"I am wimpy. And scared, and afraid. Of driving cars," he said, sitting down in facing her. She was only slightly taller than him from her place on her ring. Most times when they sat down, he was a lot taller than her. Now, it was practically even ground. 

"Is it too much to ask why?" She said quietly, looking him in the eye. He sighed. "No. Not it's not."

He took a deep breath. "Parents. Car crash."

Her face flooded with understanding. "Oh. Oh- _Oh fuck-_ I am _so_ sorry, I should never have made fun of you," she said, burying her head in her hands. Keith chuckled, "It's okay, you didn't know."

"That doesn't make it right."

"No, but that's not why I came here." 

Pidge looked up at him. "Why did you come here?" Keith gave her a tight smile. "Because I don't wanna be wimpy or afraid. It's time I got over my fear and learned to drive. And, I was hoping you could teach me."

His eyes seemed to sparkle with the idea of having Pidge as his teacher. He was worried it might be out of line to ask that of her, but she figured it was worth a shot. She would understand why he wanted to learn, right? She could put up with his bullshit and teach him, right?

He hoped so. 

"Oh my God. Seriously? You're asking a fifteen-year-old for Driver's Ed? City boy, you need help," she said, laughing. He joined her. 

"Come on, what do you say?"

"I'd love to," she said, smiling. 

"Alright. But, two conditions."

She raised an eyebrow. "Shoot."

"You tell no one about any of this."

"Done."

"And you can't call me City Boy. My name is Keith."

"Alright then, Keith, I guess I have a student."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I know I know this took too long and its way too short but it's the holiday season and I am sleep deprived right now. I also got covid from Starbucks so life is pretty shitty. 
> 
> I'm aiming for a super-long chapter next update, so stay tuned for that one, but as for now filler will have to do. 
> 
> I think we can all say a collective good riddance to 2020 
> 
> Let's hope for a better 2021


	9. We've Just Agreed Not To Tell The Principal

"Put on your fucking swimsuit and get out here, mullet!" Lance shouted to the bathroom door for what felt like the millionth time. A muffled response was heard through the door in retaliation, but Lance just groaned. "We're all ready! We're just waiting on your impatient ass!"

"Lance, give him a break. You threw a dozen swim trunks at him," Pidge said, a hand on her hip. She, Lance, and Hunk were stationed outside the basement bathroom. Shiro and Matt were waiting in the car outside with all of the stuff piled up in the trunk. 

"Okay okay, I'm coming," Keith shouted from behind the door. A collective "finally," came from the other side, and the door swung open. Keith had on a pair of red and black swim shorts and a gray t-shirt. He handed Lance the mountain of other trunks he'd packed. Lance waddled over to the stairs to go put them back in his suitcase. 

"Remind me why he packed so many swimsuits again?" Pidge asked as the three of them followed Lance up the stairs. "He wanted to be 'prepared'," Hunk explained, his air quotations earning a giggle from Pidge. 

After they reached Lance and watched him try to stuff all of his clothing back into his tiny suitcase, they started to make their way to the car. It had been Lance's idea to go to the lake, claiming that it was definitely going to be different than the swimming pool he lived by and that meant he had to see it. It was also quite hot outside, and all of them needed to cool down for a while. 

If Keith said he wasn't blushing, then that was a lie. He was. He looked like a damn tomato and everyone could tell. 

It wasn't his fault, he hadn't told Pidge to wear _that_ swimsuit. She wasn't wearing a full-on bikini, it was a larger top, but there was still skin showing between. It was a really cute lime green and white gradient suit with a couple of frills near the top. 

Okay yeah, maybe the blushing was his fault. Whatever. 

The four of them ran to the truck, jumping into the back. 

"What took you so long?" Shiro asked, turning his head to face the four teens. Matt started his truck and the vehicle lurched backwards, sending Lance into a corner. 

"Lance gave me a mountain to babysit," Keith said, helping said boy to return to an upright position. Shiro chuckled, facing front once more. 

It was late morning. The air was still slightly breezy, but it was warm and sunny. A picnic basket with lunch inside laid on Shiro's lap, safe from the danger Lance posed. The truck sped by, warm air flowing through their hair, causing the leaves on the nearby trees to flap in sync. 

Pidge was a much better driver than Matt, that fact became evident shortly into the ride. It wasn't unpleasant, well, for all but Lance, but the other three were having trouble without holding onto the walls. 

One particularly large rock caused the truck to shake, sending the four in the back sprawling. Keith had a good hold on the back corner of the truck bed, so he managed to stay in his position. Hunk and Lance slid to the front in some sort of dogpile. Pidge, being the small human that she was, managed to catch some air with the unexpected movement. 

It was fine, she was a gymnast. She knew how to land, that wasn't the problem. The problem was where she landed. As cheesy as it sounded, the girl quite literally flew into the emo's arms. He kept one along the top edge of the back wall, but he let his other fall slightly on her shoulders. 

Then he realized what he did. 

Keith turned the reddest shade on the color wheel. _Why would you move your arm like that? You barely know her, why are you touching her shoulder? Now she thinks you're weird and creepy and obsessed,_ he scolded himself, but his arm didn't move. 

Part of him didn't want to move it because she hadn't flinched. She wasn't recoiling in visible disgust at such a close touch. She probably wasn't used to near-strangers placing their arms around her shoulders, but if so she was a damn good actor. 

He sat there, all of his energy focused on trying not to tremble with embarrassment. She would think he was weird, right? She couldn't _like_ it. No, that would be weird. 

But she still hadn't moved. She seemed to be rigid like he was. Both sat there waiting for the other to make their move. 

But Pidge had never been one for awkward situations. So she made her move. 

It was small, barely noticeable. But Keith noticed it. A small spot of warmth came in contact with his chest as she laid her head back, leaning into him. It was a strangely dangerous move. He could easily push her away and act like he wasn't enjoying it. 

Her attitude most of the time gave him the impression she would playfully push most people away if they got in close contact. This sure as hell was close, and she had just _leaned in_. 

The loud hum of the vehicle eliminated any hope for silence, and soon the group was talking again. Hunk transitioned to the corner of the back next to Keith, and Lance settled in next to him. 

The road was smoother after the first couple of minutes, as gravel turned into grass. Roads in this part of the area were scarce, it was mostly homemade paths and walkways. Matt and Pidge had been down this way multiple times, so the turns and bumps were familiar to them. 

They weren't moving especially fast, and the four in the back were thankful for that. But trees still flew by like birds in the sky, they were moving much too fast to take it all in. The Quantum Lake was, by physical size and appearance more closely related to a pond than anything else. 

A really, _really_ deep pond, that is. 

As the body of water drew nearer, the cliffs came into view. They were a joy to jump off, but a beast to climb. Clean, sandy beaches spread around the edges of the water, decorating the scene. A handful of small picnic tables were clustered in one of the clearings, next to an old play structure. 

Matt pulled up in the parking lot and the truck jolted to a stop. 

"Matt," Pidge exclaimed as she hopped out of the vehicle. Keith was a bit sad to feel the warmth leave his side when she exited. "I love you and all, but I'm driving on the way home," she said, snatching the keys from his open hand. 

The six of them made their way to the bigger side of the beach where the picnic table laid, and Shiro set the basket down on top of one. They were made of darkened wood, old but still usable. 

Pidge didn't waste any time on the sand, starting to run towards the cliffs. The rest of the boys followed in her footsteps, Shiro bringing up the rear of the group. When they reached the wall of rock, Matt knelt down and gave his sister a boost. 

She leaped into the air and caught herself on the bumps and dips of the cliff. Her bare feet found secure holds in the rock and she reached her hands higher up the wall. She pulled herself up farther and farther up the cliff until she was able to pull herself up the edge and out of sight from the others. 

Matt stood up from his position and backed up to look at the cliff wall, as if he was waiting for something. "Well?" He said, pointing to the wall and looking at the boys. "Can y'all not climb?"

Lance was the first to hop onto the wall. He scaled it almost as quick as the girl before him, but it was clear this was his first time. Shiro followed, climbing without haste. He had probably climbed this wall many times before. 

"Is there another way up?" Hunk asked Matt, and he nodded in response. Matt pointed to a small trail to their left, and Hunk disappeared into the trees. 

Keith hesitated, staring at the wall with confusion. He had never climbed a rock wall before. 

"You gonna climb or walk?" Matt asked him, placing a hand on his hip. Before Keith could reply with an obvious "walk," and start making his way through the path Hunk had just taken, the shout of a girl came from above him. 

Pidge came into view, tumbling through the air. She was smiling as she flipped and twisted in midair and finally came crashing down into the water below. Lance followed shortly after, screaming and flailing his legs and he neared the surface of the water. His splash was big enough to fall on both Matt and Keith, making them laugh. 

Keith ran up the path Hunk had taken, stepping over many roots and rocks on the steep stairway upwards. A patch of bright light came into view, and he squinted with the newfound brightness. He raised his hand up to shield his eyes, his mini shade allowing him to see Shiro, Hunk, and Matt atop the cliff. 

There was a large, soft platform on top of the cliffs, a wide-open area where you could see the water below. Shiro was backing up along the runway of sorts, clenching and unclenching his fists. His toes dug into the dirt beneath him, and he sprinted for the edge. 

When he reached it, his foot pushed back on the rock, causing him to flip backward as he fell to the water beneath. Keith made his way to the edge, staring at the lake below. He could see Pidge and Lance swimming towards the beach, most likely to climb back up and jump again. 

The distance to the water probably wasn't as long as it looked from the top, but it was still a tall jump. He wasn't afraid of heights by any means, but Keith had never really jumped from any great height before. Maybe this would be a good start for him. 

Matt patted him on the back, and Keith looked up at him. "You should jump, man," he said, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to the runway behind him. 

Keith walked to where Hunk stood, preparing for his run. "You can go first," Hunk said, taking a step aside. Keith gave him a nod of thanks and prepared to run. 

He wasn't really sure how long he stood there. He couldn't quite gather the strength to start running, this was nothing like the diving board back at home. At some point, Shiro, Lance, and Pidge all made it back up the cliff. 

He didn't want to make anyone wait on him. He considered stepping back and letting them jump a couple of times, but decided against looking frightened and weak. It was Pidge who broke his focus. 

"You don't have to jump, you know," she said, a smile upon her face. There were still droplets of water in her hair and on her face, making her almost sparkle. Her smile made him smile. He liked it. 

"No, I want to," he said, looking back to the edge of the cliff. 

"Then how bout I jump with you," she said, taking his hand in hers. Her hand was smaller than his, but not by much. It fit in his grip neatly. He squeezed it a bit, chuckling. Then he felt another hand in his other. He looked over to see Shiro staring at the water. 

Hunk took Pidge's free hand, and Lance took Hunk's other hand. Matt took Shiro's free hand, completing the small chain. The six of them stood by the edge of the trees. Keith had the dirt path to the edge, some of the others had bark or roots in the way. 

"You give us the countdown, kiddo," Shiro told him, no one shifting their gaze from the small waves below. Keith nodded, taking a deep breath and calming his quickly beating heart. 

"Three."

"Two."

"One!"

The six of them sprinted to the edge of the rock. Pidge kept up with the speed of the rest, but Keith felt like the group was pulling him toward the water. But this time he didn't mind. He wasn't alone. 

Then his feet lost the ground. There was no dirt or rock to run on, his feet just kicked at air. He turned his head down to see the water far below him, and he could hear the shouts of joy from the people around him. 

He let out his own exclamation of partial fear, partial amazement, and a little bit of excitement. 

This was different than flying through the air on pieces of silk. This had no strings attached, literally. There was nothing suspending him or keeping him above the ground. He was simply falling. Like skydiving without the parachute. 

Well, skydiving without the parachute, but without the splat. 

He saw the others let go of hands so they could fall freely. He felt Shiro's hand depart from his, and his arm flailed in the air. But he didn't let go of Pidge's hand. And she didn't pull hers away, either. 

When the surface hit, only two sets of five fingers remained entwined. 

They all surfaced at different times, laughs and splashed danced in the air. They eventually made their way to the beach again, where they made their back up the cliff. 

After the big splash previously, they jumped in pairs. Keith and Shiro leaped off the rock, Lance and Hunk followed, and Pidge and Matt flipped their way to join them. 

There were arguments over who could make the biggest splash, Hunk reigned supreme with his cannonball. Pidge, Shiro, and Matt all showed their experience with the place, coming up with different tricks to perform before crashing into the water. 

Keith eventually tried the cliff wall and discovered it was much easier and quicker to climb than he had first thought. The jump seemed to get shorter and shorter the more he got used to it, which made it easy to jump again and again and again. 

Once they got tired of leaping off a cliff, the group proceeded to play in the shallower end of the lake. They splashed each other with as much water as they could move, shout and screams echoing off the trees surrounding them. 

It was fun. A simple word, but Keith had good intentions. This was a kind of experience the city really couldn't offer. Then again, most everything they had done here was impossible to do in the city. 

But this was the most _fun_ Keith had had in a long time. Back in Marmora, he didn't do much just for fun. He went to school, he rode his stupid motorcycle home, and he helped Shiro with the chores around the house. Other than the aerial arts he used to do a year ago, extracurricular activities and parties and study buddies were all foreign to him. 

He was always too busy pulling his own weight. Shiro worked every day from dust till dawn. He barely got any sleep, trying to fit time with Keith in every day. That didn't leave him much time to rest. 

Keith did the laundry and the grocery shopping and the cooking and all of it, it was the least he could manage for the roof over his head and the hospitality. Shiro was his cousin, technically. He had taken Keith in when he was just a little boy in the orphanage, and adoption followed shortly after he turned 18. 

It was nice to sit back and just not _do_ everything. Here, Hunk and Matt usually handled the cooking. He and Lance helped out with the laundry and the various chores around the house, which Pidge and Shiro made sure to explain in detail. There was a lot to do to maintain a yard of that size, but with four people working on it, it wasn't too bad. 

And even when he was working, it was still _fun_. He wasn't familiar with that word very much. It was an exciting term to learn. 

Another thing he learned with his time in the Holt household was how similar the siblings were. Sure, they were different genders and one was older and a shit ton taller, but they were indistinguishable on the inside. 

Both loved memes more than life itself, both gave each other a hard time about the smallest of things with only the best intentions, both were smart as fuck, and both could totally beat someone up if they felt so compelled. 

Their personalities were so different than the ones he was used to back at home. It was strange, but it was also awesome. 

Matt wasn't a complete stranger to Keith, seeing as he had come over to their apartment before, but Keith had never gotten to know Matt until now. The dude was a lot cooler and nicer than he let on. He could see why Shiro would want to spend so much time with him while the rest of them were out on their adventures. 

"Matt, let me get up and beat his ass," Pidge said to her brother, and he rolled his eyes at the curse word. But he bent down and she hopped on his shoulders, raising her above the water and into the air. 

"Oh, it is _on_ ," Lance said, and Hunk bent down so Lance could ride his shoulders. The two on top looked over at Keith expectingly. Keith gave them a little shake of his head, but soon felt hands lifting him onto Shiro's shoulders. 

"Fight!" Shiro and Matt shouted at the same time, and the three people in the water ran towards the same spot. Lance, Pidge, and Keith pushed and pulled each other, trying to knock them into the water. Lance was the first to go down, as his tackle fell a bit short. 

Pidge and Keith didn't last much longer, however, as both went down at the same time trying to push each other over. 

The sun was rising higher into the sky every time Keith glanced at it. It was nearing the middle of the afternoon, and the group decided to sit down and have lunch. 

With the darker color of the wood, the benches were nice and warm to the touch. It was the kind of wood that didn't give you splinters, which was a bit of a relief to the rest of them. 

Inside the woven basket were a dozen small sandwiches, a bunch of bananas, and some juice boxes. It was easy to pack and easy to eat. 

As they sat and ate their lunch, conversation floated about. 

"You guys are so lucky to have all this around, the closest thing we have to that is a diving board at the swimming pool," Lance said, taking a bite out of his sandwich. 

"I've never even seen a swimming pool. We've just got very different surroundings," Matt told him. 

"You've never seen a swimming pool?" Keith asked. 

"Nope. Heard of 'em, but the lake's all we got," Pidge explained, swallowing her sandwich before she spoke again. "Matt's been outta here before, but he hasn't seen one either. It's not like they grow on trees."

Hunk raised an eyebrow at her. "Have you ever left this little town?"

"Nope," Pidge stated simply, peeling back her banana. "I regret nothing. People sound weird where y'all come from."

"Oh, come on. Haven't you ever wondered what a city looks like?" Lance asked her. She shook her head. 

"I've seen pictures, and for now that's good enough for me."

"For now?" Shiro asked. 

"Maybe I'll leave this place someday."

"Does this place even have a real name?" Keith asked, looking around. He hadn't seen any sort of welcome or good-bye sign on their way in, and there were only road signs on the side of the road. 

"We got a nickname for it, but no map companies give a shit about us," Matt told him. 

"Nickname?" Hunk asked, intrigued. 

"Folks here call it Balmera. None of us know where it came from, but we use the name," Pidge explained. 

"Balmera. It's interesting, that's for sure," Keith replied. 

"Well, what about you two? The four of us have been just about everywhere in Balmera, what are y'all doing back at the house?" Lance asked, looking at Shiro and Matt. 

The two adults looked at each other, their mouths stopped chewing at the same time. There was a solid ten seconds of silence before Matt cleared his throat and Shiro turned to face the others. "We're working on a project for GU. We got some summer homework and it's a really big grade," He explained. 

Keith didn't buy it. Shiro was a shitty liar, he had always known that. And Matt's facial expression wasn't helping it either. Pidge knew their excuse was phony too, he could tell by the way her eyes narrowed. 

Shiro didn't usually lie to him. This was new. 

"Speaking of school, what is homeschool like?" Hunk asked, in an attempt to break the silence. 

"It's awesome. I can finish my courses in a couple of months and then the rest of the year is one big break," PIdge said. 

"Wow. I wish Altea High let us do that," Hunk replied. 

"Yeah. The teachers go on and on for hours about the most random stuff. Especially Mr. Coran, he never stays on topic," Lance told her. 

"Mr. Coran is always drunk in class and we all know it, we've just agreed not to tell the principal," Keith added, earning a laugh from Lance and Hunk. 

"Your school sounds...interesting," Pidge pointed out, finishing her second sandwich. 

"That's definitely one word for it," Hunk replied, putting his banana peel in the plastic bag. 

It was getting warmer. The seats were starting to warm up faster than anticipated. The group quickly finished their food and packed up the trash, and Matt brought it back to the truck. The other five went back to the shallow water to cool off. 

It was probably another couple hours of jumping off cliffs and splashing each other before they decided to depart. Pidge, as promised, drove them home. Keith also stole the front seat before Shiro could get there, saying "now you get to be stuck with Lance."

There was a strange silence in the car seats, in contrast to the laughter in the back. Pidge was concentrating on the road, as she should be. Keith wouldn't want to get in a crash. But that left him with nothing to do. 

On the way there, he had practically been hugging her the whole time. Now, there was a good three feet in his way. Plus, it wasn't very safe to hug the driver. Not that she would want that. But he did notice that she was shivering. The boys had sweatshirts in the bed of the truck, but there were only a couple and they were already taken. 

He looked at the dry t-shirt in his hands. He wasn't using it. He wasn't very cold, but she looked like she was. The sun might have been up in the sky, but the trees around them cast a blanket of shade and the wind blew through the vehicle. It was pretty chilly inside, but Keith didn't mind. 

He held out his shirt. Pidge looked at it, raising an eyebrow. "I already told you, I'm not your fucking coat rack," she said to him. He laughed. 

"You look cold as shit. Take it," he said motioning to the shirt in his hands. Her head perked up and she took the shirt from him. He reached over and took the wheel in his hand, keeping the truck going straight. Pidge put on the tee and then resumed her position, her shivering stopped. 

It was now the end of June. Keith had been taking driving lessons with the girl next to him for almost a full week and a half, and he was getting better at facing his fear. He couldn't wait for the day when he could willingly drive the car so Shiro didn't have to. 

He was getting better. That had to count for something. 

She looked snug in his shirt, even though it was a bit too big for her. 

**_She was wearing his leather jacket. It was too big for her, but it somehow fit her perfectly._ **

The wind through the window made the excess fabric flap in the air.

**_The zipper was open, allowing the wind to make the edges of the jacket fly in the air._ **

And as Keith looked out the window

**_The trees moved past them at astonishing speed._ **

It was as if all

**_She spoke_ **

Was frozen

**_And his heart froze_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took a hot minute.


	10. Calendar Pictures Are No Joke

"Tree! Tree! _Tree, dammit!"_ She shouted to him, reaching over and turning the steering wheel. The vehicle lurched in agreement, sending the two in the front sideways. 

"Sorry, I blanked out," Keith said, running his hand through his hair. 

"Well no shit, you know the rule order," she said, moving her hand as Keith switched the truck into reverse and backed up away from the trees. 

"Yep, one is the road, two is the traffic, and three is the passengers," he recited. Those were her basic rules of the road. The pavement could be both beneficial for transportation, but also unforgiving if he wasn't paying attention. Therefore, the driver should always be looking at it. 

Rule number two, making sure to be aware of the other people around him. For their safety and his own, he needed to make sure that he wasn't putting another car at risk when he drove, similar as to that he should be aware that other drivers might not see him, and be prepared to evade accordingly.

And then came rule number three. The passengers. They weren't in control of the car, but the driver was. That meant that the driver could do something about potentially dangerous situations, but passengers were pretty much helpless. As a driver, he should make sure that his passengers were fully buckled and prepared for driving before he turned on the vehicle. 

They were simple rules, but they were important. 

They were the first thing Pidge had taught him before she even let him touch the wheel. He had memorized them since, making sure he was constantly checking the small list. If something ever went wrong, he would have to be the one to do something. 

The two were in an open place. A large meadow with nothing but trees around it for miles. It was the optimal place to learn to drive if you didn't want anyone else knowing, but it also meant you had to watch out for the trees. And maybe Keith wasn't the best at that part. 

Pidge noticed how his face fell. She let out a small sigh and put a hand on his shoulder. His head perked up and he looked over at her. "You're getting better, okay. You just need to watch where you're going." 

He nodded and put the car into drive. He drove in his normal laps, just circles and circles again over the same old trail. They had been at this for two weeks, and he was almost ready for the actual road. Apart from his subconscious fear of crashing, he was relatively comfortable in the driver's seat. 

And Pidge was a good teacher. She pushed him when he needed it, but let up when it was a bit too much. It was slightly concerning that he was learning how to drive with a fifteen-year-old, but he would take it over one of the stupid teachers back at Marmora. They made you go on the busy roads with all the other people driving and walking all over the place. 

And he couldn't handle that. Not quite yet. 

But the roads out in Balmera were scarcely populated, and the chances of actually running into another person were highly unlikely. Most people biked or walked through Main Street, the only place other than Sal's where you could find traffic. 

It was really the perfect place for a beginner like him, or which he was thankful for. 

It also gave him a chance to get to know the girl a bit more. When she was around the whole group, or even just Hunk and Lance, she wasn't really herself. She was sarcastic and chill, but around him, she almost seemed clingy. It was a trait he recognized, as he shared it with her. 

He acted tough and collected on the outside, but he really just wanted to know people. He wanted to make friends that he could trust, which wasn't very easy for him. 

Maybe she was scared people would push her away. Maybe she just didn't trust people in general, for that he really couldn't blame her. The world was filled with some strange people. 

But maybe she was just shy. Maybe she wasn't used to the attention and found it easier to hide in the shadows. Maybe now that a bunch of new people were In her space and really wanted to spend time with her, that meant she could let down her walls a bit. 

During their lessons, she wasn't afraid to open up to Keith in the slightest. She told him about all sorts of stuff, ranging from her terrible cooking to when Matt first tried to swing on her equipment. She was a funny person, and she had some really interesting stories. 

One thing he discovered was how close she was with this Rover dude. She talked about him a lot. Apparently they were best friends in homeschool, but he had left for an official high school a year ago. He wanted to get a better education, as his parents weren't the best of teachers. 

The two had known each other since they were children, had lived in Balmera for their entire lives together. The kind of relationship she talked about, it was similar to that of Shiro and Keith's. While the age differences were impactful, Shiro was the only real person he had had a serious relationship with for most of his life. 

What really surprised Keith was how much he felt himself opening up to her. He talked about his life with Shiro, his complicated friendships, and even talked about his emotions sometimes. It was weird to talk about that stuff to anyone other than Shiro. It was even weirder to have someone agree with him. 

She didn't force him to talk or anything like that, for the first time he found himself willing and _wanting_ to tell her. It felt good to get it off his chest and out in the air. Like closure, a feeling he couldn't quite describe. 

He liked the solitude. Well, he wasn't completely alone, but sometimes it felt like it. He didn't mind her there. She didn't give him the pressure that other people did. Other people made him feel like he had to talk, like he had to _do_ something. With Pidge, he could just _be_. And that was good enough for both of them. 

"I think that's enough for this morning. Let's go to Sal's," Pidge said, opening her door and circling the front of the truck. Keith's hands tightened on the steering wheel. He didn't really want to leave. He wanted to keep trying. 

"I can do it," he said, looking down at her through the window. Her head perked up. "Really?" She said, heavy sarcasm in her voice. Keith nodded. Pidge raised both her eyebrows. She was under the assumption he was joking. This was new. 

"Wait, really? You think you're ready?" She asked him. He nodded. 

She didn't question, nor did she disagree. She merely smiled at him and hopped back in shotgun. Her door slammed behind her and she put her seatbelt on. At the _click_ of the buckle, Keith laughed. Okay, so maybe she didn't trust him with her life. Maybe he didn't trust him either. 

So he buckled in too. 

He pulled out onto the road, looking both ways before he turned onto the gravel. The tires rolled on the smooth pebbled surface. He was really doing it, he was driving. On a road. In a truck. 

The wind blew through the window and into his hair and his face, but he didn't mind. He knew what it felt like, he rode a motorcycle and he's ridden in vehicles before, but this time he was really driving. _He_ was behind the wheel and in control. 

He had overcome his fear. He wasn't afraid anymore. And it felt _great_. 

The road was wide, it had to have enough space for two-direction travel, but no one was coming in the other direction. Keith turned the wheel slightly so the truck swayed back and forth. It wasn't a violent movement, but it was different than a straight line. 

"Woah, your first real drive and you're breaking the law. Rebellious," Pidge said, smiling. Keith just chuckled. "A fifteen-year-old taught me how to drive. Don't act like this isn't illegal."

They both laughed. 

Keith didn't take his eyes off the road, as she told him to. The road came first. The road was fine, it wasn't slippery or bumpy or anything, so he had that part down. The traffic came second. There weren't any cars in sight, but he was fully prepared for the fact that one might appear. 

And then came the passenger, rule number three. And by the smile on Pidge's face and the way her hair flapped in the wind when her head stuck out the window, she seemed to be having fun. His three priorities were taken care of. 

He was doing...good. He was. 

He made a couple tentative turns on the way to Sal's. At one point, Pidge offered to help him, but he shook his head. He wanted to do this. He needed to do this. It was good for him. 

He finally pulled up into the parking lot of the diner and yanked the keys from their spot in the ignition. 

Pidge threw up her hands in celebration. "Fuck yeah! You did it!" She said, beaming at him. He was frozen. He had just driven. Like, on an actual _road_. Near the end, there were even some _other cars_. 

And he hadn't crashed. He hadn't died. 

Fuck yeah. He _had_ done it. 

#_#

"I don't know where they went, it's not like I keep him on a leash," Lance said, looking out the window for the fourth time in the past minute. 

"Then where could they have gone?"

"Isn't it obvious? They're probably making out somewhere. Maybe in the back of that truck, the one that's _not in the garage,_ " Lance told Hunk. "You saw the way they were looking at each other on the way to the lake. I ship it."

"I thought Keith didn't really care about dating and stuff like that," Hunk replied, pulling Lance away from his station near the window. 

"What are you two doing?" Matt asked, walking up behind them. A mug of coffee laid in his hands and Shiro followed with a mug of his own. 

"Waiting for the lovebirds to come back," Lance told him, once again glancing towards the garage. No change. It was almost lunchtime and Pidge and Keith still weren't back from wherever they had decided to escape to. 

"Lovebirds?" Shiro said, raising an eyebrow. "Lance has been obsessing over their secret romance all morning," Hunk said, groaning. "It's exhausting."

Matt and Shiro looked at each other. There was a small silence before the two just shrugged and joined Lance in looking out the window. 

"I can't believe this!" Hunk exclaimed, throwing his hands up. "I'm surrounded by idiots."

"Are you saying you disagree?" Lance asked, and the three turned to face him in question. Hunk sighed and looked down. Satisfied, the others turned back to the window. 

"There!" Matt shouted as his truck came into view. Hunk darted in behind of them. 

There they were. In the truck. Keith was driving, Pidge was in shotgun. They both appeared to be holding some sort of drink, a small Sal's logo on the paper. 

Shiro raised both eyebrows in surprise. Keith? He could drive? He had never seen Keith even get _near_ the driver's seat before. He had always figured it had something to do with his parent's deaths, but he had respected Keith's withdrawal towards telling him. He knew it was a touchy subject. 

Keith had tried learning to drive so many times, but each time was the same. He would get angry, lash out, and come storming back to the apartment and hide away in his room. Shiro couldn't blame him, and he certainly wasn't mad, the kid had a right to be hesitant. 

But this time he was smiling. He rarely smiled like that. The last time Shiro had seen him this happy was when they adopted Kosmo, his husky. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen Keith frown all summer. He was really enjoying himself. 

_Well, that was the plan,_ Shiro thought, sneaking a glance at Matt. _But I'll have to tell him eventually._

The two hopped out of the car and tossed their cups in the garbage can outside the house, before the door opened in their faces. "Where have you two been?" Hunk asked them, his arms crossed. 

"I've never seen mullet drive before! When were you planning on telling us you could do that?"

"Pidge, you can't just take my truck like that."

"You can drive?" Shiro asked. He spoke quietly, but his tone took everyone off guard. They all turned to him. He was doing all he could to stop from crying. As a guardian, he had always hoped one day he might learn, he might finally conquer his fear, but he hadn't expected that so soon. 

Keith looked up at him, a warm smile on his face. Shiro stepped forward and pulled him into a hug. Keith wrapped his arms around Shiro's back, returning the embrace. They stayed like that for a couple seconds, and without letting go, Shiro turned his head to face the small girl behind them. 

She had her arms crossed in satisfaction at the view in front of her. She almost looked proud. Shiro mouthed a small 'thank you' to her over Keith's shoulder. She gave him a short nod in reply, then motioned for Lance and Hunk to follow her inside. 

Matt started to turn around, but Shiro grabbed his hand. He parted from Keith, turning to face him. "No. Stay."

Keith raised an eyebrow in confusion, and the two men turned to face him. "There's something we need to tell you, Keith," Shiro told him. Keith nodded slowly, his eyes darting between the two of them. "O...Okay," he said hesitantly. 

#_#

"You're right. The sunset looks better in person," Keith said, staring out at the scene in front of him. "Hey now, those calendar pictures are no joke," Lance added, causing the rest of them to chuckle. 

After the ordeal that morning, and the lack of Sal's at lunch, Pidge and Keith made it up to Lance and Hunk that evening. The four of them were sitting in the back of the truck and eating food. 

"So, what like- _really_ happened this morning?" Hunk asked, sending the two in question a smirk. Both blush simultaneously, making Lance and Hunk laugh. 

Keith wasn't entirely sure what to say. It wasn't like he had an excuse for driving and laughing at Sal's all morning. But, then again, what was he hiding from? What was he really keeping from them? The fact that he didn't learn to drive until now?

He decided that wasn't worth lying about.

"Pidge has been teaching me how to drive," Keith answered quietly. The laugh died out. Hunk gave him a pat on the back. "Nice job, man. I'm proud of you," he said, and Lance nodded in agreement. 

That wasn't the answer Keith had been expecting. But he would take it. 

"Well, you might not be fit to drive around in the city streets, but for these country ones you'll do just fine," Pidge said. 

"You know what I think?" Lance said, and the other three turned to him. "I think we should take a city day. You know, a little field trip to Marmora."

There was a pregnant pause. 

That actually wasn't a half-bad idea. Pidge had never seen the city, and they had spent a little over a month in Balmera. 

"That actually sounds fun, I'd love to say hi to my family," Hunk said, turning to Pidge. "What do you say?"

The three waited for her answer. But the truth is, she didn't really have one. If she had the guts, she would've said no. She would've told them she didn't want to, that that might be more than she could handle. That she needed more time to practice, that she shouldn't be distracted. 

But she didn't have the heart for it. They all looked so happy to return to their homes, even it would just be for one day. She couldn't take that from them, not when they had spent so much time here. 

"Fine," she said, trying her best not to smile as the three of them lit up with joy. "But only if you promise me you won't abandon me in a city I don't know about."

There was a collective agreement that none of the boys would leave her alone. She was comfortable with that. 

"Dude, I cannot wait for you to meet my family! They're gonna love you!" Lance said, lightly punching her shoulder. She feigned a gasp and returned the favor. "I dunno, I'm a handful."

"You're going to LOVE Marmora, there's so much to do and see, and we can show you Altea High, and you can go swimming in the swimming pool and we can all wait in a long line for Starbucks, and you can see our pitiful excuse of a park and drive on the pavement roads- okay maybe not drive because that's not legal in Marmora but we'll make it work!" Lance rambled. 

Pidge stopped listening to him about halfway through, as did the other two. But his message got across. These boys lived in a very different world than the one she was used to, and if she wanted to really get to know them it probably wasn't a bad idea that she learn where they came from. 

Keith watched her as she shook her head in response to Lance's nonsense. She was thinking, he could tell. There was a lot going on in that brain of hers. 

The warm light coming from the sunset really outlined her features beautifully. Her eyes sparkled, her freckles seemed to dance. Dammit, she was pretty. 

She was pretty and she was funny and sarcastic and beautiful and talented and badass and honest and all of it. She was amazing. And he had only known her for a short time, the two of them could only pass as friends. There was still so much he didn't know, so much he wanted to learn. 

That, that moment, facing the sunset in the bed of a truck, was the first time he knew. He was in love with Katie Holt. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok ok ok so 2021 already proved us wrong that yes things can get worse
> 
> If you live in America and support the terrorists that broke into our nation's capitol building respectfully get the fuck off my page. Thank you. 
> 
> Okie now that the good ppl are left wassup bitches I hope you had a good day today
> 
> My quarantine is over. Yippee.


	11. Bring Your Damn Canoe Paddle

"Nice job! Now bring the other leg up," Keith shouted up to Pidge, watching as she rotated in the air. She followed his instruction, bringing her left leg up to touch the top of the ring. She looped her foot around the top and let her hands loosen. It was a risky hold, but it worked. 

Her other leg flipped to catch the bottom of the ring in the crook of her knee, allowing her to fall slightly from her previous position. Her hands slipped and spread apart, pointing to opposite parts of the barn. 

As the ending beat of the music resounded through the shack, she relaxed her leg and flipped to land on the mat below. The was a small round of applause from the broken bleachers, as the four other boys clapped. 

"That's the best run you've ever had!" Matt said, walking over to her and patting her on the shoulder. He looked over at Keith and smiled. "You've got good coaching skills." 

Keith chuckled. "She doesn't need me, she's already got the tryouts in the bag," he said, walking over to the bleachers and grabbing his jacket from the top seat. Lance jumped off from one of the taller benches and struggled to land on his feet. 

"Okay, that was beautiful and talented and all but can we please go get lunch now?" He groaned, rubbing his ankles from his fall. Pidge laughed. 

"Your impatient ass couldn't wait until after eleven o'clock for food, that's kinda sad," she said on her way out, and the three younger boys followed her out and around to the truck. Matt and Shiro went inside, and Matt emerged with the keys to his vehicle a moment later. Pidge snagged them from his hand and threw them at Keith. 

Almost effortlessly he raised one hand to catch the keys and hopped into the driver's seat. Pidge slid in next to him and Lance and Hunk took their positions in the back. 

Keith punched the dashboard and felt the familiar hum of the truck buzzing to life. He had been the residential driver for a little while now. Pidge always rode shotgun to help him out when he needed a hand, and Lance was getting used to the dangers of the back. 

Keith was preparing for the drive to Marmora. When Lance had first proposed the idea, he had offered to drive. Pidge immediately shot down the idea, claiming that he would be moving too quickly from country to the city and that she should drive instead. 

It was then that Lance stepped in to remind her that it was illegal for her to drive where they lived, and that Hunk would be their driver since he was used to it. Pidge and Keith reluctantly agreed, but Pidge made sure to make it known she would be the one driving until they got to roads with a population. 

Lance had wanted to go right away, he really never had a grasp of anything close to patience, but that was rejected too. Pidge wanted to wait a couple days to finalize her training routine before she left for a few days. 

Yep. It wasn't really just one day. It took a long time to drive to Marmora and back, it didn't make any sense to just stay one night before driving home. Pidge agreed to three nights at the maximum, excluding any emergencies involving Matt and Shiro, who would be staying back to keep the house and yard clean. 

It was a good plan, and all of them were looking forward to it, Pidge less than any of them, but it was clear she was too curious to not be a tad bit excited. 

"Brake check!" Keith shouted to the boys in the back. Hunk tightened his grip on the back wall but Lance just widened his eyes in terror. "Wait-" he said, before falling flat on his face. 

"Lance, that's the fourth time this week. You need to grab onto something, buddy," Hunk said, pulling the teen up from the floor. "You could tell mullet to stop _doing that!"_ He said, the last bit of his sentence directed to the boy at the wheel. 

"I'm preparing you for an emergency," Keith said while laughing. He parked the car into one of the spots by the entrance to Sal's, and the four of them exited the truck. They all slid into one of the booths and said 'Hi' to Rover, who happily handed them their menus. He also leaned over to Pidge and whispered something in her ear. She responded with a nod and a giggle. 

The boys had been to Sal's enough times that they had developed favorites among the menu, making ordering the food much quicker. Every time they made sure to point out the fact that Acxa couldn't cook for shit. It felt weird to be insulting the bully for once, but it sure as hell felt good to get revenge. 

Lance had posted the picture of her on his social media a long time ago, and he stood proud of his actions. He knew once he returned to school he'd probably get beaten up but the look on Acxa's face was worth it. 

Once their food came, the group started talking. 

"Okay, so we need to make sure that we visit all the places on my list," Lance said. He had written down all the places he deemed necessary for Pidge's viewing. It was a rather long piece of paper. "But where else do we wanna go?"

All eyes turned to the girl. "What?" She asked, her forkful of waffles stopping halfway between the plate and her mouth. "Well, you're the one who's never been, what kinda stuff do you wanna see?" Hunk explained. 

Pidge thought about it for a second. "You guys got any caves?" A collective head shake filled the booth. She thought about it again. "Trees to climb?" Another head shake. She sighed. "What about some sort of gym where I could practice?"

"You could visit Romelle's Studio. Our friend's family owns the place, they named her after it. She's pretty cool I guess," Keith told her, taking a sip of his milkshake. Pidge perked up a bit at his suggestion. "Oh. Okay, then that sounds good," she replied. 

"I do have one suggestion," she said, finishing her first waffle. "What's that?" Lance asked. 

"Can I bring a canoe paddle?"

"What?"

"A canoe paddle."

"Why would you need a canoe paddle?"

"To stick it out the window and paddle it while the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song is playing, duh."

"Dude. That's so awesome. Yes, bring your damn canoe paddle, I'll join you," Lance told her, somewhat shocked at their conversation. 

"What on earth sparked an idea like that?" Keith asked, intrigued. 

"Oh, it's just on my bucket list. Matt'll never do it because he sucks at driving and no one around here would actually give me a reaction worthwhile."

"Bucket list, huh," Keith said, returning to his food. 

"Well yeah of course I have a bucket list, don't you?" She replied, and the two other boys looked at him expectingly. 

"Um, no I don't," Keith said flatly, and a gasp came from the others around the table. "What do you mean you _don't_ have a bucket list?" Lance asked in horror. "I mean I don't have one, it's not a requirement," he replied. 

"Um, yes it is! I have one on my phone in the notes app," Lance said, pulling out his device. "Same," Pidge and Hunk said, grabbing their phones. 

"Ok mullet, we're gonna make you a bucket list right here right now," Pidge said, patting him on the shoulder. Keith wasn't really sure if he was supposed to be excited or terrified. It was probably both. 

"Wear formal attire to a gas station and purchase a Twinkie," Lance read. 

"Pretend to be a manikin at Walmart," Hunk added. 

"Play real-life MarioKart with shopping carts in a random parking lot," Lance said. 

"Ask people for directions then run the other way," Hunk said. 

It continued on. Each new statement brought a laugh from the emo boy. They really wanted to do all that crazy stuff? Was that what normal people had on their lists. Hunk and Lance went back and forth with their ideas, but Pidge stayed relatively quiet. 

Keith left Hunk and Lance to their weirdo battle and turned to the girl next to him. "What about you? You got more crazy stuff?"

"Not really. I've got a couple things that were pretty hard to imagine doing in Balmera, but I also never really considered leaving the place. I've completed most of the things on my list," she explained, and Keith raised an eyebrow. 

"You really thought you were never gonna leave?"

"Why would I? I don't really like other people that much, and I stand out like a sore thumb in places where I don't belong. My family is plenty happy with the life we've got, and I couldn't ask for anything better. I don't like change that much," she told him. 

"Then why are you auditioning for the spot in Galra?"

"Well," Pidge said, looking down at her phone. She used her fingers to zoom in on one of the bullet points and showed it to him. It read 'get into some important aerial arts school'.

"Is that the only reason?" Keith asked as Pidge put her phone away. "Seems a lot of work for a bullet point on your notes app."

Pidge chuckled. "Yeah, it is. Way too much work. But, I've never really been good at people, and that means I have to find something else I'm good at. I saw a video of someone doing what I do on the internet a while back, and I loved it. So I worked with my dad to build my own, and I've been training ever since."

"I guess my real dream was opening up a gym here. It's really unrealistic, I know that, given that there's no one in this whole place who would even be interested in that sort of thing, but I dreamed about it anyway. When I figured out it wouldn't work, I didn't stop training. I don't know why. Then one of those stupid ads for the Galra popped up on my recommended and I looked into it."

There was a small silence. Lance and Hunk were still listing off their absurd goals in life, but the other two didn't say a word. 

"It just felt right to apply. I can't really explain it, and if I tried to you'd think I'm weird. Which I guess I am, but you don't seem to hate me as of right now and I'd like to keep that a running theme," she said quietly. 

She was basing all of her hard work on a _feeling?_ It sounded crazy to him at first, but it also made sense. After all, he had started aerial arts himself because of a feeling too, whether he would admit it or not. He had just thought he was the only one who thought that way, but it turned out he wasn't alone. 

"Other than that, the canoe paddle thing and a couple of pranks on Acxa are the only things I've got on here," she said, motioning to her phone. He nodded, smiling. Maybe he should make a bucket list, even if it was just to fit in. It sounded fun. 

#_#

The group made it back to the house shortly after three o'clock. Lance and Hunk put their battle of the bucket lists to rest when they got back in the truck, to Pidge and Keith's relief. 

That night was the last one they would be spending at the Holt residence for a bit, as they were planning to leave the next morning for Marmora. They had all agreed that getting there early was a good idea, as parking the car would be a lot easier. 

Pidge was a bit upset that she couldn't bring Matt's truck, but the boys had to once again remind her that riding in the back of a truck was illegal and they couldn't do it on an actually populated road. 

She had reluctantly agreed, and Keith had offered to ask Shiro if they could use his car. Shiro said yes, surprisingly. Keith had fully expected a no from his guardian, but he was grateful that he would trust him with the car. Then again, he was trusting Hunk and Pidge, not him. 

Pidge jumped out of the truck and walked over to the sedan in the garage, wanting to take a good look at the vehicle she'd be driving at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

"Um, where the fuck is the front seat?" She asked, turning to the boys. "Oh, that broke a long time ago, we haven't gotten a new one," Keith explained, and she raised an eyebrow. 

"How the hell can you drive in a car that doesn't have a fully formed front seat? You know what, don't answer that. Let me fix it," She said, walking to the back of the garage and picking up a couple of screwdrivers from the counter. 

"Fix it? How are you gonna do that?" Hunk asked her. 

"With a new car seat, duh," she said, walking past them and out onto her yard. The boys hurried to catch up with her, confused. "Where are you gonna get one of those?"

"From Voltron."

"What the hell is Voltron?" Keith asked. "Oh, just an old van we've got. It doesn't work real well, we've been meaning to get it fixed, but a mechanic is hard to find around here. So we keep it back here," she said, rounding a corner and into a small patch of trees. Once the wall of greenery broke, the boys saw it. 

It didn't look too old, but it definitely needed some sprucing up. The white paint was peeling on the sides, and the whole interior was covered in dust. But it wasn't the kind of vehicle you would scrap, that just seemed like a waste. 

"Wait, why would you take it apart? Can't you just fix it?" Keith suggested, circling the van. 

"We Holt's might be smart but we don't know shit about what's been going on with Voltron. They just don't want to start, we can't identify the problem," Pidge said. Hunk walked up to the van and popped the trunk. He took a look at it, reached in, rearranged a couple of tubes, pulled out a weird metal box thing. 

"Try it now."

"What?"

"I said try it now."

"Oh, so you think you can fix it, huh?"

"I'm an engineer. I think I've got a pretty good idea."

Pidge's eyes widened. "Oh. I had no idea," she said, opening the door to the driver's seat. The keys were already in the ignition, so all she had to do was twist. The vehicle hummed to life. A shocked expression formed on her face and she stuck her head out the door. 

"How the fuck did you do that?"

"This is fried," Hunk said, tossing the box onto the hood of the van. "You don't need it to drive, and it was messing with the temperature. The engine didn't like that, so it went into some sort of shutdown. Looks like you got it up and running."

Pidge just sat there in shock. "Hey, why don't we use this thing to drive? It's got way better seats back here and lots of space!" Lance shouted from the back of the van. It was true, the vehicle had a lot more space. There were two seats up front, similar to that of the truck, but the sliding door on the side opened the entryway to a large open space, with two benches on the sides. There were a couple seatbelts in the corners for safety, but the rest was open space. There was a huge sunroof window in the roof of the space, letting the sunlight poking through the leaves of the trees above to shine on the wooden floor. 

"This would be like the back of the truck, just with protection from the elements," Lance said, holding up one of the seatbelts, "with safety measures."

"Wouldn't this be illegal too?" Pidge asked, but Hunk shook his head. "This is an old enough model, I think I could get away with it. As long as you've got the paperwork," he said, opening the glove compartment next to the front seat. It popped open to reveal a small stack of papers. 

"You do. I could legally drive this," Hunk said, closing the compartment and looking up at Pidge. 

"Well, we'd need to give it a bit of a makeover, but yeah, we could use Voltron," she said, and a small cheer came from the other three. 

"Why do you call it that?" Keith asked, climbing through the sliding door to check out the inside of the van. There were some LED lights decorating the inside of the vehicle. He found the remote under one of the benches and turned them on. The whole space lit up with five different colors, red in one corner by the front seat, green by the driver's seat, yellow by one of the back corners, blue by the other, and white on the ceiling around the sunroof. 

"I know it's a stupid name, but my dad named it after some stupid cartoon he watched when he was a kid. It just kinda stuck, ya know? He was obsessed with the show when he was little, made it his mission to design the inside to have a Voltron-like theme," she explained. 

"It looks like one of those vans in the movies, like the ones that the FBI use to hide from people," Lance said. Hunk laughed as he joined them in the back. He closed the door behind them. "So what does that make us, FBI agents?"

"No, that's not original enough. We should be like on a mission or something, like in the middle of some secret war or shit like that," Lance said, dramatically waving his hands through the air. Pidge chuckled. "The term for that would be paladin, Lance."

"What does that mean?"

"You know, warrior, fighter, that kinda shit."

"Well, then that's what we are. The paladins of Voltron, that doesn't sound too cheesy," Lance said, satisfied with his answer. Keith climbed into the front seat. "No, it's got just the right amount of cheese, Lance," he replied. 

"Alright then, paladins, are you ready for departure?" Pidge asked, strapping herself in with the seatbelt. Keith did the same. Lance and Hunk backed into the two corners and buckled their seatbelts as well. 

"Yellow clear!" Hunk shouted. "What?" Pidge asked, her hands stopping right before the wheel. "Well, if we're paladins, we should have some sort of code name. This place has four colors in the different corners, and yellow's in mine. That makes me yellow," Hunk explained. "So, yellow clear. As in, ready for departure."

"Blue clear," Lance added. 

"Red clear," Keith said, looking back to see the light behind his chair. 

"Green is fucking clear," Pidge said, pressing her foot on the pedal. The van lurched forward, but with the seatbelts, the four teens stayed in their seats instead o flying all over the place. Pidge twisted the steering wheel, guiding the vehicle through their entry point to the clearing. She drove it through the yard until they reached the garage, where she stopped the van and put it in park. She unstrapped, as did the others, and the group filed out of the space. 

"That was awesome! We're totally riding in that thing," Lance said, placing his hand on the wall of the van. When he removed it, some chipped white paint stuck to his hand. "Ew! First, we need to give Voltron a new coat of paint."

"Is that our new 'mission'?" Pidge said, her hands making air quotes to emphasize her sarcasm. Lance nodded. "Paladins, get some paint!"

Pidge showed the boys where they kept the spray paint, and she went back to grab the plain white cans. She and Keith worked on one of the sides of the van, covering it in plain white paint, while Lance and Hunk went crazy with the cans of spray paint. They made sure to steer clear from the windows on the side, using cardboard or tape to protect the glass, but the rest of their exterior was covered in strange shapes and overlaps with green, red, yellow, and blue. 

It didn't look bad, and it wasn't really blinding to the eyes. You could tell there was a certain style to it, and the contrast between the patterned side and the white side had its own fashion. When the paint dried later that night, the four teens were quite proud of their work. 

They spent some time cleaning up the back of the van, placing an old rug down on the wooden floor and installing some shelves on the sides. They hit the place with a vacuum cleaner and dusted the benches, and stocked the shelves with plenty of snacks. 

Against the back of the driver's seat, there was a small cooler that they filled with ice and drinks. There was plenty of space for their luggage against the front seats, and they used bungee chords to keep the bags from sliding around during the ride. There was even a spot on the ceiling where Pidge could put a couple of canoe paddles. 

When Shiro found out they wouldn't be using his car anymore, it was quite obvious that he was relieved. Though he wouldn't admit it, he really was afraid of putting four teens in charge of his car for three whole days. 

The night before the road trip was a long one. All four of them knew that they should probably get to sleep as soon as possible because they would have to wake up early the next morning, but it was nearly impossible to get any rest. 

Call it excitement, call it fear, call it anticipation, but only two of the people in that house got a good sleep that night. 

And the paladins of Voltron were up at five o'clock the next morning for the departure of their next mission. 

The journey to Marmora. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes all of those things are on my bucket list in my notes app and I have no regrets
> 
> Apart from that, I had a lot of fun writing this one. I was planning on putting 'Voltron' in there later in the story as a completely different concept, but it just fit with me that they would paint a van one afternoon, and I made it Voltron. Oops.


	12. I Want Video Proof, Mullet

The morning was a beautiful time of day. When the sun barely starts to rise, the rays shyly poking out onto the ground. The horizon baked in warm colors, almost like a flip sunset. Due drops dripped from tree branches, and the air was still cold enough to give you goosebumps. 

But it was also peaceful. In Marmora, this early in the morning was just honks of cars from outside your window. There was never a quiet moment in a place like that. 

And for the age of the van, it rode really smoothly. Lance and Hunk were in the back with all of their luggage. They were constantly looking out the windows and shouting random memes to the world. Lance was recording some of the journey, claiming he had to keep updating his social media. It was amusing to say the least, and took attention away from the fact they would be in the van for almost nine hours. 

According to Pidge, they should arrive in Marmora around two in the afternoon. It was an estimate, but it was encouraging. 

Keith resided in the front seat, as he did most of the time. He liked the front seat, it was a place where he could still pay attention to the road, watch the signs, look out for traffic, but not actually have to do anything. It was almost like he was driving. It was close enough for now. 

Pidge looked way too excited to be driving a van at dawn. She had reassured the boys that she did indeed know how to maneuver such a vehicle, but they were still skeptical. Seeing a fifteen-year-old drive a van half as big as a school bus was frightening at best. 

The road was empty. No other people were stupid enough to be on a road trip this early in the morning. 

Before departing on their mission, the paladins had stopped by Sal's to pick up some food. It was a necessity that they didn't go hungry along the way. Two milkshakes sat in the cupholders in between Keith and Pidge, and the other two sat in the mini-fridge. A couple bags of take-out sat tied to the end of a bench with some bungee chords, and would not be touched until lunch. 

To say that Keith was excited to go home would be a bit of a lie. Sure, he was looking forward to seeing his home city, but it felt strange. He had been in the polar opposite of his home for the past month and a half, and he had gotten quite used to it. Lance and Hunk had family to say hi to, but Shiro had stayed home. That meant the only person he could really reunite with was his dog Kosmo. 

Okay, so maybe he was excited for that. 

To say that Pidge was excited was also a bit of a lie. She was excited to be driving Voltron again, and she knew the rest of the paladins weren't boring on their excursions, but she couldn't help but be a little afraid. What exactly was she scare of? Well, that was embarrassing. She wouldn't ever say it out loud. Maybe it was the dense population, maybe it was the crowded roads. 

But it was probably the nagging fear that she would somehow get left behind. That the boys would see their families and friends and home town and completely forget about her. She had only known them for half a summer, that wasn't significant enough to really remember, right?

"Hey!" Lance shouted from the back of the van. "You got any good tunes?" There was a small speaker system in the vehicle that Pidge had set up the night before. The van was old enough that there was no way you could even try to connect any technology to it, so they had to go the old-fashioned way. 

Pidge fished her phone out of her pocket and tossed it back to him, and he caught it easily. She put the van on cruise and told Keith to take the wheel. He reached over and grabbed the wheel with his left hand, keeping the van steady. Pidge stood up and walked over to where Lance was struggling with the speakers. 

She plugged in a couple cords and then opened her Spotify app. She returned to the driver's seat and Keith let go of the wheel. It took a couple seconds, but the song Chandelier started playing in the back. Keith and Pidge both responded with a series of 'no's, but Lance didn't change it. 

He had this whole mini dance party in the back area. He couldn't dance for shit, but no one was gonna tell him that. He sang the notes quite off-key, but he did hit the high note right on one of the choruses. Apart from that it was quite literally torture. 

When the song finished, Pidge demanded a better one. Lance groaned but complied, search for songs. He settled for some sort of rock one that he and Hunk danced to. It wasn't ideal, but it was okay. 

The road was nice this early in the day. The sun reflected neatly onto the pavement. The colors were beautiful. This was the first time Keith really recognized the colors around him. There were so many different browns and greens and grays and reds. 

The real world was vibrant and bright and loud. It had so much variety and beauty and surprises. 

It was all so different. And to think he was returning to his little apartment on one of the practically nameless streets, he wasn't really sure how to think. 

There were a couple times when Pidge pulled over to Lance and Hunk to turn the volume down. Brake checks were pretty much unethical at this point, as the fall to the ground would be much more violent than the bed of a truck, so Pidge settled for a neat little stop in the middle of their disco. 

Keith mostly just looked out the window. One time when Pidge pulled over he asked if he could drive for a little while. She reluctantly agreed, and the two switched seats. Lance and Hunk sat down near the front of the van right behind the other two and got out some of the food. 

It was nearing breakfast time, and they were all a bit hungry. Keith said he'd wait until after he was done in the driver's seat to eat so he didn't make them crash. Pidge was more than happy to have both hands unoccupied and open to eat. Turns out, take-out waffles were way less messy than Keith expected. 

The paladins conversed for a while, telling stories and cracking jokes. It was similar to most of their other adventures. The talking, the laughing. Everything was so familiar at this point. Most time in the city, the boys didn;t have a whole lot of time to just sit back and talk. 

School and extra curricular took up a lot of the free time they were granted, and the three of them lived close, but it was still a bit of a hike. It wasn't easy to get together outside of school, let alone as often as they were now. In Balmera, you could just wake up and everyone was practically right there with you. 

Meals together weren't a requirement, but no one really wanted to miss out. Their time together was so lively and exciting, very different from his normal routine. While sometimes the company of five other people was a bit much, it meant you were never really alone. 

That was something Keith was learning to appreciate. 

But he also had to take into consideration the fact that everyone else had other family. Pidge had her parents, even though they were gone on vacation. Lance had his ginormous family and all of his tiny cousins, and a bunch of other friends at school to hang out with. Hunk didn't have a huge family, but he still had a lot of relatives. 

All of the people accompanying him had other people to care for. Keith just had Shiro. 

He wasn't complaining, Keith had always made sure to never take his guardian for granted. He made sure to spend plenty of time with him whenever it worked out in both their schedules. 

But he had to admit, it was nice to have people around for once. 

"Okay Keith, it's your turn. Truth or dare?" Lance asked, looking towards his friend. Keith thought about it for a moment, then decided. "Dare," he responded. 

"Okay, no more wimpy little dares. Give him something good," Pidge said from the passenger seat. She was sitting with her knees up against her chest, a plastic waffle tray sitting atop her knee caps. 

"Oh, you want good?" Lance asked, rubbing his hands together and smirking. "I dare you to walk down Zarkon Avenue past seven." The words lingered in the air for a few seconds. Hunk's eyes went wide, they two boys looking at Keith expectingly. 

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "What's so bad about that?" She asked, confused. "Oh, sorry I forget you don't know these things," Lance said. "Zarkon Ave is like the haunted street of Marmora, and no one walks on it after the sun goes down. People have been said to disappear," he explained. 

"Lance, that's just a stupid rumor. There's nothing wring with the street, I drive on it all the time after dark," Keith said. Lance opened his mouth to retaliate, but he closed it shortly after. He thought for a couple seconds, then piped up again. 

"Fine then. You have to perform a number Romelle's Studio on their silk things. I want video proof, mullet," he said, then leaned back and crossed his arms, satisfied with his answer. "I'm picking the song," Pidge said with a mouthful of waffle. 

Keith rolled his eyes and smiled. "Okay, fine. Pidge, truth or dare," he said. She swallowed her waffle. "Dare." He spoke almost immediately. "I dare you to break into Altea High and walk around at witching hour."

She laughed. "Shit, that sounds fun. Y'all wanna come?" Lance and Hunk nodded quickly. "Your fingerprints though, not mine," Hunk said, and they all laughed. 

"Hunk, truth or dare?" Pidge asked, closing up her plastic container and placing it in the trash bag. "Truth," Hunk said and Pidge groaned. "Ugh, no fun. Fine. Got any _crush?"_ Pidge asked, drawing the last word out in a long sarcastic manner. 

"He's got one alright!" Lance said, lightly slapping Hunk on the back. 

"Got any picture of them?" She asked, and Hunk nodded. He turned on his phone and scrolled through his photos till he reached an image of a taller girl with light brown skin and short black hair. She also wore some really big golden hoop earrings. He turned the device toward Pidge and let her take a look. 

"Not bad, big guy," She said, nodding her approval. The girl in the photo was really pretty. 

"He's had a crush on Shay ever since the fourth grade. It's obvious that she likes him back, the two are just too scared to ask the other out," Lance explained. Pidge hummed her understanding. 

"Alright, my turn. Lance, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Lance said, after a small pause. Hunk thought for a second but quickly decided upon an answer. "I dare you to get out the stepstool and sing your stupid Chandelier to the rest of humanity as soon as we reach our first stoplight in Marmora."

"Oh shit, I hope no one from school is out today," Lance said, laughing. The truth was, having a huge van probably wasn't the best idea. And with all the other traffic, travel by foot would be way more efficient. 

But that was a bridge the paladins could cross when they got there. They didn't have to worry about that now. 

Once they got tired of truth or dare, it was a form of free time. There wasn't any sort of designated schedule they planned on following, so they all just kinda went about their business. The occasional stray cheerio would fly to the back from the front seat and Lance would try and catch it in his mouth. While Keith never actually did any break checks, he would shout it to the rest of them to see their reaction every so often. 

They ended up making one pit stop about halfway through the ride to fill up the gas tank and use the bathroom. Lance had insisted on the cleanest looking gas station. That was where Keith returned to the front seat and Pidge got to be the driver again. 

It was later in the morning, and they were all still a bit tired. Pidge got some coffee to help her stay awake, but the other three started napping almost as soon as the vehicle continued in motion. Light snores came from the back corner, but Pidge couldn't tell who was the one snoring. 

Keith wasn't really sleeping, he was just closing his eyes. There was no way he could fall asleep again after being awake for so long and just driving for an hour or so. But Pidge looked a little too focused on the road to converse with him, so he let his eyelids rest. 

The van was a surprisingly smooth ride. Keith had fully expected a school bus kind of bumpy, but this thing rode almost as well as the truck. And considering its age, that was mildly impressive. 

"I can tell you're not asleep, mullet," Pidge said quietly from her seat. Her eyes didn't leave the pavement in front of her, and her voice was relatively monotone. It was clear she was running on little sleep. 

"Is it that obvious?" He asked, chuckling. He didn't really want to be a distraction to her and had hoped she would have bought his little lie. "You're a terrible actor in general," she responded, smiling. 

There was a certain calmness to the inside of the vehicle. There was the light rumbling from the wheels and the engine, the quiet snoring of the boys in the back. And her voice was different. Around others, it was always this sarcastic I'm-not-afraid-to-fight-you kind of attitude. 

This was an entirely different story. She seemed...relaxed and sweet. Less salty and more sincere. 

"Woah, woah, this was a simple yes or no situation, no need to call me out," Keith mumble from his awkward half-laying-down position. Pidge giggled. "My sincerest apologies, dear asker of simple questions. I will certainly do better next time."

There was a level of comfortability that Keith noticed right then. The fact that she could so simply talk to him with such a gentle tone. He had never seen this kind of behavior with her before, the terrain was foreign to him. He wasn't sure how to navigate it, nor if he should really try. 

The difference was quite literally night and day. She gave off this badass vibe then just casually talked to him like this? It seemed impossible one mere person could be both at the same time. Then again, she was amazing enough to pass as more than one mere person. 

At least, to him. 

He didn't want to take her trust for granted. It was obvious she was more comfortable with him than with the others, which was understandable. They had a lot more in common than the rest. 

The road sped by like a river. Each little rock on the side of the road darted past his vision before he could get a good look at it. They weren't moving at breakneck speed, but it was fast enough to just miss a lot of what's going on in their surroundings. 

In Marmora, they wouldn't be able to go this fast. They would be honking the horn and pressing the brakes every couple of feet. It was all so _different_ that Keith had a hard time thinking about it. 

He and Pidge came from places that were _polar opposites_. She came from such a flexible world, one where you could almost make it your own. You were so free, so open to inevitable change. 

Maybe that was what Keith was struggling with. The idea that his life wasn't in one continuous line anymore. He was zig-zagging all over the place, the world was forcing it so. In all reality, there probably wasn't a whole to he could to stop his life from changing. Then again, he wasn't sure that he really wanted to change it. The spontaneousness of the past month had been so enjoyable, so different. 

He didn't want to go back to the boring straight line of a life that awaited him back in Marmora. 

But as he thought about it, it probably wasn't Marmora that caused his world to be so uneventful. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't try to change it. He could try hanging out with Lance and Hunk outside of school, or joining some sort of club. He could find himself something to look forward to, something to be excited for. 

"Stop thinking so loudly. I can hear the chaos from here," Pidge groaned sarcastically. Her comment brought Keith out of his thoughts. He smiled and sat up straight in his chair. "What are you thinking about?" He asked her. 

She raised an eyebrow slightly before responding. "Well, Marmora. Big place, lots of people. Just...mentally preparing I guess," she said, glancing over at him. "You?"

Keith took a longer time to respond. He wasn't really sure if he should say what he was really thinking about. _What, that this girl made you realize human interaction is important and inspired you to completely change your lifestyle? No, that wouldn't be cheesy in the slightest._

"In general this summer's been..." he paused. Pidge raised both her eyebrows as she waited for him to finish his sentence. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. After a couple of seconds of thought, he sighed. "Nice." Pidge couldn't help but smile a little at his description. She had been expecting a negative response. 

"Oh really," she said, and he nodded. "It's been good for me to step back from the world I live in, and just take in some of the stuff I don't get to see. Like," he said, and looked around. His hand motioned to the landscape in front them. "Like all of this. It's beautiful, and I've just never seen it before."

"Well, I hope my experience is as good as yours," Pidge said, and he turned to her. "What do you mean?" She pointed a finger to the long road that stretched out into the distance. "This might have been your first time in the country, my first time in the city is getting closer every mile. I hope my first impression is as good as yours."

Keith wasn't sure if he could reassure her with that one. Marmora was a nice place once you lived in it for a while, but it did take a lot of getting used to. You really had to experience it to understand. 

To be honest, he was actually really worried for Pidge. He had this horrible feeling that something was going to go wrong and she would get in trouble. The city was so different than what she was used to, there were lots of things she didn't know were illegal. 

What if she tried to drive something? What if she robbed a bank or some shit like that? He didn't know what to expect for any of it. Before departing, he had made a mental note to not let her wander around alone and get into a battle with the law. 

"I hope so too, but no promises," he decided on, not wanting to sugarcoat it. She nodded, satisfied with his answer. There was a pregnant pause after that. The snores were diminishing from the back, and mumbles could be heard from Lance. 

They were waking up. 

"Hey sleepyheads," Keith said, getting up from his seat and sitting himself down on one of the benches. Lance groaned and reluctantly assumed a sitting position, followed closely by Hunk. 

"I know we're in, like, a van, but I slept like a baby," Hunk said, and Lance nodded in agreement. With the smoothness of the ride, it had been very easy to stay asleep. "Can I drive now?" Lance asked, walking over to the front of the van and took a sip of Pidge's coffee. 

"Are you sure you're not too drowsy?" Pidge asked with heavy skepticism. 

"Trust me, he recovers from a nap surprisingly quickly," Hunk commented from the back, and Pidge shrugged. She pulled the van over to the side of the road and unstrapped, letting Lance take the wheel. 

"The Blue Paladin is now steering the ship as the mission resumes," Lance announced dramatically. The rest of them cheered as the vehicle started moving again. 

Pidge scrolled through her music playlists and chose one that had a lot of her training songs. Most of them were pop, a couple were on the instrumental side, and a few were even rock. The other paladins knew most of the songs she had. 

Of course, this led to a type of chaos. 

Music was played. Blasted, more specifically. And not only were the soundwaves practically shaking the van, but the three people in the back were having their version of an awkward party. The colored lights were flashing in various vibrant colors that oddly lined up with the beat of the songs. 

No one really tried to sing, but there were many different voices that strangely harmonized in the vehicle. It was clear that Lance was singing from the driver's seat, and he was probably the only one that sounded decent. His singing skill came as a shock to Pidge considering his previous performances, but she decided not to question it. 

The canoe paddles came down from the ceiling and acted as makeshift microphones, the three of them jumped in sync to the beat, moving in slow circles. Awkward dance moves were thrown in the mix. None of them were particularly good at it, but that was what made it so fun. Everyone was doing what they wanted to, and no one judged. 

Hair was whipped around in the air, arms flailed, and the benches even acted as a slide at one point. 

They all were acting their moves out dramatically, pretending to be in some sort of viral music video for whatever song was playing. Fake tears were shed. There were _many_ laughs. 

It was a really beautiful experience. For three people who usually would never dance in public to be vibing to songs in the back of a van, it would be described by outsiders as weird. 

And maybe they were weird. But that was fine. Because even if all of them looked like drunk chickens they were passing time and having fun. 

None of them really knew how long their party continued on for. The playlist replayed at least a couple of times before Pidge changed it. They took another pit stop to restock on food and drinks. This time, Hunk took the wheel. 

Pidge's phone read 1:00. That meant they were about one hour out from Marmora. 

Now that the roads were getting more populated, Hunk wanted to be the driver in case a police officer were to pull them over. Which, in all honesty, would probably end up happening at some point. 

To say that Lance was excited to dance in the back of a van was the opposite of hyperbole. He nearly squealed when the music resumed, and his pitch only got better as the songs progressed. 

Pidge looked out of the window every so often to see what their surroundings looked like, but she usually only had a couple of seconds before she went back to dancing. The landscape was changing. There were a lot fewer trees, and tons more buildings than she had ever seen. They were all so grouped together in such close proximity, there was almost no lawn to enjoy. 

These people barely had any lawn to mow, where were they supposed to spend their time? In their tiny box of a home?

She tried not to think about that too much, reminding herself that this trip was only for a few days. She didn't have to worry about other people's lodging of choice, this was just different than what she lived in. _All_ of this was different, and this wasn't even _inside_ Mamora yet. 

When the greed, red, and blue paladins were eventually worn out and could literally dance no more, Hunk announced their arrival. 

Well, not to the actual downtown, but they were only a couple miles from the city's equivalent of a Town Square. 

Lance and Keith stayed back in the benches, still panting and sipping on water, but Pidge was fine. After all, she kinda did that every day, just usually suspended on a spinning hoop. The ground was so much simpler. 

Instead, she migrated to the front seat, where she could get a good view of the cityscape in front of her. 

At first, she wasn't really sure she had words. She wasn't even sure if she had emotions. 

The way that all the buildings were placed in such an unevenly perfect manner was mesmerizing. They had windows all over their interiors, some of them even had plants growing on the roofs. People were sitting on balconies and waving to pedestrians down below. Lots of cars were honking, but there were hundreds of people lining the sidewalk, traveling in huge masses next to the road. 

Some people rode bikes, some people rode skateboards. Most people just walked on foot. There were shops and restaurants and hotels and grocery stores literally wherever you looked. And none of them were empty, all of them were filled with mobs of people. There were lines for food and hotel rooms that almost reached the road, they had to wrap around the sides of the building. 

It was terrifying and beautiful at the same time. 

Pidge wasn't sure how she felt about it. It wasn't like home, of course, this was completely the opposite of what she had grown up around, but it wasn't... _bad_. She didn't _not_ like it. It had a level of awe to it, the way that so many people could so easily occupy such a small space at the same time. They really didn't take any floor space for granted, they worked as well as they could with what they had. 

Instead of fear at the sight of so many people, as she had been expecting, she almost liked the idea of having lots of people in such an area. Here, you could actually disappear whenever you wanted to. It looked so easy to just blend in with the others, like there was always somewhere to hide even when it seemed like everyone else would see you. 

This was the definition of hiding in plain sight. It wasn't overwhelming, per se, but almost calming in its own devious way. Like it was some sort of trap, but without the strings. 

With all that said, she was quite relieved when Keith told her that he, Lance, and Hunk all lived on one of the outskirts areas, away from the chaotic center of the city. While it was beautiful, she had a feeling that so many people would be a different experience if you weren't hiding behind shaded glass in a giant rumbling metal box. 

With traffic, it probably took them a good hour to get through the city. 

Hunk, true to his reputation, hit no padestrians. Pidge had to work hard to refrain from taking the wheel. They passed so many beautiful structures, it seemed like the girl was taking a picture every other second. She was constantly asking questions like "What is that?", "Why does that thing have so many windows?", or "Oooh, can we go in there?". The boys were more than willing to answer them. They knew this was all new to her, and they didn't want her to feel confused. 

After an endless flow of stoplights and gibberish from Pidge, Hunk finally pulled into a parking spot. He lived in a small apartment complex, with only about a dozen homes. They had a small parking garage, of which Hunk easily parked in. 

Lance excitedly jumped out of the van, sprinting to the door of the building and crying for the restroom. Keith followed him with their bag of collective trash clenched in his hand. 

Pidge approached the sliding door, but didn't quite step out. Her foot paused before it hit the ground. It was just concrete, there was nothing to be afraid of. While rare back in Balmera, there was a small amount of concrete in some places. 

But this time was different. 

This was the concrete of a new place, a new adventure. And she wasn't quite sure if she was ready yet. 

She saw Hunk close the front door of the van out of the corner of her eye, but she didn't turn to face him. Her eyes were focused on the ground, nothing else. Hunk tossed the keys up and down in his hand and made his way over to the girl. 

"It's okay, you know," he said, standing in front of her not-quite-on-the-floor foot. She kept looking at the ground, but her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "What?"

Hunk reached a hand out and lightly touched her chin, gently tilting her face away from the ground so that she was looking at him. A warm smile sat on his face. "To be unsure. To be afraid, but also excited," he said quietly, his hand returning to his side. 

Pidge continued to stare at him, not sure what to say. 

"My family will love you, I promise. They love all of my friends," Hunk told her. "And now, officially, that's you. You don't have to be comfortable with it yet. Just...trust me," he added, holding out his hand. It was larger than hers, and looked a whole lot more welcoming. She slowly reached out her hand and placed it on top of his. 

The Yellow Paladin gently pulled her out of the van. Her feet touched the floor. She flinched. 

But the ground held her. And she could feel Hunk's hand in her own. She was okay. 

"See, not too bad, eh?" Hunk said, smiling even wider if that was possible. Pidge giggled and nodded. "Thanks, buddy," she told him. 

"Ready to meet my family?" Hunk asked. Pidge nodded again, with more confidence this time. She turned around and shoved the sliding door closed, pocketed the keys after Hunk handed them to her, and the two of them walked, together, up to the Garrett family doorstep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you know. It's me. Again. Back with another late update. 
> 
> Inspirationa and morale are running low right now. Please be patient while I struggle with my shitty updating schedule. Thank you for your consideration. 
> 
> Now. Enjoy the next four Trump-free years. ;)


	13. Gotta Save The Best Part For Last

Hunk's family was only a bit excited to have visitors. Only a little bit. It wasn't like they treated the paladin's arrival as a homecoming from a mission to outer space. They weren't freaking out. His mom didn't even cook a huge dinner for them. 

It was calm. 

Yep. Definitely. 

Okay so maybe that wasn't true. Hunk's family really freaked out. 

They were really surprised to see him show up in the middle of the summer. They had expected a later arrival, closer to the beginning of the school year. Hunk made sure to give all of his family a huge bear hug. 

It was really cute. For the rest of the afternoon, the paladins stayed at Hunk's house. His mom insisted that Pidge help her in the kitchen. She really wasn't sure that she could cook a grand total of anything, but Hunk's mom looked really hopeful that she would join her. 

Pidge ended up rolling and cutting some homemade pasta. She wasn't too bad at it, either. 

Hunk took the van to get some gas at a local gas station, and Lance made some phone calls to his home, claiming he would be there as early as he could the following morning. Keith mostly sat around, resting after the long drive. Hunk had a nephew that was very keen on playing with him. Eventually, he gave in. 

It was a nice break from the road and a great introduction to the city. Hunk's mom made sure to tell her about all of the things that she needed to see in her stay, and which parts of the city to keep away from. Zarkon Avenue was mentioned again. It seemed to be a big thing around here, that you really shouldn't be there late at night. 

Apparently the road had streetlights that went out at like nine o'clock or something. That way no one could really see what kind of shit went down. Even the police were a little hesitant to go there. Some of the biggest gangs were known to gather there. 

Pidge was pretty sure she'd be able to get around without going on the road. 

Hunk's mom asked a lot of questions. She seemed very keen on knowing a lot about Balmera and what she did there, what kind of schooling she got, and all about her family. Pidge decided to leave out the illegal driving and ravine parts, but she was glad someone was asking about her home. Even though it had only been a couple hours, she missed her shed. 

It was strange to be in such a different place than she was used to. She still looked out the window and expected grass. All she was met with was concrete. 

Once she was done cutting her pasta, she put the noodles in boiling water and cooked them. They went from a pale tan to more of a golden brown in the bubbling water. It was an interesting process. 

Once the pasta was safe to eat she fished out the pieces with some metal tongs and placed them in a bowl. Hunk's mom dumped some sort of cream sauce on top. It looked like it had mushrooms and some pieces of chicken in it. She mixed it all together. 

Lance took a couple of hours to finish his phone calls. Once he was done, he joined Keith and Hunk's nephew. They were playing MarioKart. And Keith, as always, was getting his ass whooped. 

When Hunk came home, he and his dad checked out Voltron to see if there was anything to fix in such an old vehicle. Turns out, there were some things that needed polishing or replacement. The two of them worked on that for a while. 

The house was pretty chaotic. It was loud, it was crazy. But that wasn't anything of a surprise to Pidge. After all, she had just been stuck in a van with three teenage boys for like nine hours. That in itself was an accomplishment. 

"Dinner's ready, boys!" Hunk's mom called out. The house was pretty small, and sound traveled fast. One of the windows near the garage was open, so the guys outside heard it too. The five others were at the table faster than Pidge could pour her water glass. 

Hunk still has some stains on his work apron, so he took it off before sitting down at the table. Lance and Keith made sure to leave their controllers in the living room. 

The table was a small rectangle shape, so the paladins had to squeeze in to fit. Hunk's dad claimed a side, his mom and nephew took another, and Lance and Hunk took the third. 

That left the last one to Keith and Pidge. 

They sat down, gave thanks, and started to eat. Pidge was quite proud of her creation. Hunk's mom had been busy making other stuff because Pidge was really slow at her job, but the stroganoff was the main part of the meal. She got many compliments. That was probably the first time someone had ever said anything good about her cooking. 

There were a bunch of different conversations going around the table. For such a small space, so much could be going on at once. Pidge mainly tried to focus on eating her food. She lifted her fork to her mouth, a couple of twisty noodles caught in the prongs of the utensil. But before she could eat it, Lance shouted something to the other end of the table. 

He brought his hand down on the corner right next to Pidge. It wasn't loud, but it was still very sudden. The movement startled Pidge, and her fingers slipped. The fork fell from her hand, hit the table, knocking the noodles off, and tumbled to the floor. 

Keith heard the small _clank_ sound from right next to him, but it seemed that no one else did. They were still wrapped up in their conversations. He reached down to pick up whatever it was that had fallen. 

But his hand didn't meet a spoon or a fork, or anything metal. His fingers planted themselves right on top of another hand. His cheeks redden immediately, and looked down to see who's hand he'd just accidentally touched. 

Pidge was looking at him, her hand outstretched to her fork on the ground. 

Oh shit. 

If his face could turn redder, it definitely did. Pidge could probably notice. They stayed like that, awkwardly, looking at each other under the table. Keith knew he should move his hand, but he didn't. Why wasn't he moving his hand? 

Eventually, Pidge laughed. Keith raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected her to _laugh_. Was he really that hopeless? That she could just laugh at him for touching her hand? Was she embarrassed? Angry? A laugh didn't really tell him much. 

"What's so funny?" Keith asked her, but she didn't stop laughing. It was a genuine smile on her face, not a frown. That had to be good, right? He waited impatiently for her to quiet down and reply to him. 

"You're so helpless, mullet. Holding someone's hand isn't a reason to turn into a damn tomato," she said, giggling. "Besides. You look like Pinkalicious when you blush."

To prove her point, Keith probably blushed even harder. 

She knew he was blushing. That was not a good thing. Was she onto him? Did she know? She wasn't stupid, she could probably tell he was hopelessly in love with her. 

She pulled her fork off the ground, removing the spot of warmth from underneath Keith's hand. He raised his arm back to his side. No longer was he hunched under the table, so the rest of the table could see his red face. 

"Oh, my! Keith, are you alright?" Hunk's mom asked, and everyone turned to face him in confusion. Keith nodded quickly. Pidge stopped smiling and returned to her food. "Yeah, I just...um, dropped my fork. My head hit the table. It turns red easily," he spoke fast, almost like he was tripping over his words. 

He grabbed his empty plate and glass and put them in the sink, then disappeared into the bathroom. When he looked into the mirror, he sighed. It was true. He did look like Pinkalicious. 

Keith splashed some water on his face to try and cool it down. Some of the water got on his long hair, making it droop in front of his face. He couldn't go out there just yet. He had to wait for his skin color to return to normal. 

There was a small knock on the bathroom door. "Keith?" A voice asked from the other side of the wood. "Yeah?" He replied, and the door handle twisted. His heart race sped up, expecting to see Pidge open the door. 

Instead, he was met with Hunk's head, eyes closed, poking into the room. "Are you pooping?" He asked, and Keith laughed. "No, Hunk," he said, and Hunk opened his eyes. He smiled and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. 

"Did you actually hit your head on the table?" He asked, an eyebrow raised. Keith shook his head, looking down at the counter. "Are you okay?" 

Keith nodded that time. Hunk set one of his hands on top of Keith's shoulders. The touch was calming. Hunk had a way of doing that, calming people down. Making them feel happy. Making them feel safe. 

"It's Pidge, isn't it."

"What?"

"Pidge. That's why your face was red."

"How did you-"

"Keith, I've known you since elementary school. I also have eyes."

"Am I really that obvious?" Keith asked, worry flooding through his voice. 

"Hunk chuckled. "Buddy, Pidge doesn't know how you normally act around girls. How is she supposed to know that you've got a crush?"

"It's not a _crush_ ," Keith said, interrupting his friend. The word crush sounded so immature. Childish. He was far too old for 'crushes', and so was Pidge. 

"Okay, my apologies. You're a hopeless romantic," Hunk said, and Keith chuckled. "That's not much better than a crush, but okay. I admit it," he said. 

Hunk gave him a pat on the back. "I won't tell anyone. You can come out of here whenever you're ready, but we're having peach pie for dessert soon," he said, and opened the door again. He looked around to make sure no one was looking, then stepped out quickly and closed the door swiftly behind him. 

Keith didn't have any intention of staying in a small bathroom for longer than he needed to. He stood up straight and looked in the mirror. His face was still a bit red but it wasn't very noticeable. He combed a hand through his hair and opened the door. 

#_#

Hunk's parents offered to have them over for the night, but the paladins turned the offer down. The house was small, and they weren't trying to be any kind of burden. There would be way more space for them somewhere else. 

The three other Garrett's waved them goodbye as Hunk backed out of the parking garage. Lance had claimed shotgun and was excitedly waving at them through his window. 

When they got onto the actual roads, Hunk immediately pulled into a small parking lot out of view from his house. He and Lance turned to the two in the back. The question lingered in the air. 

"Where are we going to sleep?" 

Lance looked at the others, hoping for an answer, and sighed when there was only silence. "Come on, we drove all this way, we need a place to sleep!"

"What about your family?" Hunk asked Lance, but was given a head shake in response. "They're out of town tonight, planning on coming back tomorrow to meet me in the morning, and I don't have a key."

"We could get a hotel room or something," Pidge suggested, but Hunk shook his head. "Not around here. Hotels are packed and really expensive."

There was a small silence as the paladins thought about it. Keith piped up. "We could stay at my place." The others looked at him, surprised. "Really? I thought that like no one was allowed in there," Lance said, raising an eyebrow. 

It was true. Keith and Shiro didn't usually have guests, and not many people ever came over. It was usually a no-man's-land for anyone but themselves. But, it wasn't a bad idea to check in on Kosmo, either. He was used to being on his own, he was a very solitary dog. He was really well trained and knew when to eat and where to do his business. 

But he was probably missing Keith just a bit. Keith was definitely missing him. And that was enough reason to see him again. 

"Shiro's not here and we've got nowhere to stay. It'll work for this little trip," Keith said, and Hunk turned the van back on. He pulled out of the parking lot and made the closest turn. 

"Do y'all live close to each other?" Pidge asked. "Pretty much. I don't go to his house, but Keith only lives a quarter of a mile away," Hunk said, pointing to a really tall building to his left. He parked on the side of the road in one of the parallel parking spots. 

Before they could exit, Lance stopped them. "Wait. There was something I forgot to do when we got here," he said, walking over to the back of the truck and grabbing the stepstool from the corner. He set it under the sunroof and opened the window. He stood on the stool and took a deep breath. 

Pidge giggled, pulling out her phone and recording. Lance posed for the camera then screamed as loud as he could. He shrieked the lyrics of 'Chandelier' to the street. The sound bounced around on all available surfaces, his singing traveling through the whole area. A few people on the sidewalk opposite them started laughing, as did the rest of the paladins. 

Once Lance had finished the first verse and the chorus, he stepped down from the stool and returned it to the corner. Keith swore he heard clapping from outside. 

The paladins grabbed their bags and made their way to the front door, making sure to lock the van behind them. There was a lady at the front desk who saw them and sent a small wave in their direction, and they returned the gesture. Keith led them to the elevator on the right side. 

When the doors opened, a younger couple stepped out of the elevator and smiled at them. They continued through the lobby and out the door, bags in tow. The paladins took their spot in the small space and watched as the doors closed. Pidge was trying really hard not to ooh and ah. 

Keith hit the '14' button on one of the walls next to the now closed door. The elevator buzzed and started to rise. There was a big glass wall behind them, and Pidge watched as the sidewalk became smaller and smaller. The way they were effortlessly lifted up into the air, it was like she was back at her barn. 

When they reached level 14, the elevator stopped. A tiny _ding_ announced the arrival and the opening of the doors again. The four filed out of the small room and walked through the hallway. 

The walls were a really boring shade of tan, and they looked to have some sort of weird texture to them, probably a cheap wallpaper. The carpet was thin, a dark brown pathway between the rooms. A light pattern laid out across the ceiling, interrupted every so often with a small light. 

It was oddly comforting, but also a little too similar. There was no variety to the doors. They were all some sort of fake wood. The door handles were the same. Even the peepholes were in the same spot on each one. It was probably cheaper for the complex that way, but it had an eery feeling to it. 

Keith stopped at number 216 and typed in some code on the little pad by the handle. A _click_ came from the door, and he was able to open it. He swung the fake wood open wide to reveal his apartment. 

Pidge had to imagine that they all looked like this. If the doors and the carpet were the same, the inside of all the apartments probably were too. But that meant that _everyone_ living here had _this_ view. 

She knew this wasn't the busiest side of town, but it was still pretty packed. And from this small apartment on level fourteen of a random tall building, you could see almost all of it. 

The floors were a type of fake wood too. Not the same as the door, but way less expensive than actual wood. The doorway opened to a small collection of hooks on the wall to hang coats and hats. Beneath it, a small black mat sat for shoes. 

The entire place was very open. There was the living space right in front of them, and a small kitchen and dining room off to the side. A single doorway led to the master bedroom and bathroom. The couch was white, the chairs were white, the counter in the kitchen was white. The cupboards and shelving were black. Everything else was dark brown or gray. 

Out of all the things she could have noticed, that was the first. His color palette literally consisted of 50 shades of emo. 

Not to say that the place wasn't beautiful. Though devoid of color and passion, it had a sense of beauty to it. It was comforting, but also frightening. Just like the carpet and walls outside. 

But the far wall was just a solid window. Just glass. Not the best for security reasons, but there looked to be a system of curtains or blinds or something around it. 

But the _view_. It was amazing. There were so many lights outside. From streetlights to the lights of other apartments to the rear car lights in traffic, there was so much vibrance. The city was still buzzing, even this late in the day. Granted, they were facing the busier end of the city, but still. 

People were walking, cars were honking, businesses were booming. It was a truly beautiful sight. And the fact that Keith got to see this _every day?_ Talk about luck. 

"Well, what do you think?" Keith asked, watching with a smile as the other three stared in awe. 

"Um, were you just planning on keeping this from us forever? You have like, the best view in the whole damn city!" Lance said, motioning to the window. Hunk and Pidge simply nodded in agreement, their jaws still on the floor. 

"We move around a lot. Haven't been here very long," Keith reminded him, and Lance put a hand to his forehead. "Right, sorry. Forgot."

"It's fine. Now come on, you guys look really stupid standing there looking so intently at a window," he said to the others. Pidge reluctantly looked back down to her bags, reaching to pick them up. 

Suddenly, she felt a force pushing her from the side. It was strong and toppled her right off of her feet. She tumbled onto the fake wood floor, sliding on the smooth surface. Her bags followed her, sliding to her legs. 

_Did someone just shove me over then slide me my bags?_ She thought, groaning as she raised herself off the floor. 

"Kosmo! No! How many times do I have to tell you about jumping on people?" Keith said, running over to where Pidge was. "I'm sorry about that," he said as he helped her up to her feet so she could see what was going on. A huge, fluffy dog sat on the ground next to her, panting excitedly. It had probably been a hot minute since anyone had come to visit him. 

Keith squatted down to his dog's level, giving the pet a glare of sorts. They had probably been through this before. "It's fine, he's just excited," Pidge said, reaching her arm out in Kosmo's direction. 

Kosmo walked around Keith to sniff her hand. After deeming her safe, he licked her face a couple of times. She just giggled and stroked his back. 

"Okay, that's a first. Kosmo usually hates other people," Keith said, rubbing his head in confusion. Kosmo almost always tried to attack people on sight, especially ones that he didn't know. He wouldn't bite or anything like that, but he jumped and licked. But this time, Pidge was short enough that he could actually knock her over. 

"I have a dog too, he acts like this all the time," she replied, taking her bags and swinging them over her shoulder. "You have a dog?" Hunk asked. 

"Yep. Baebae. My parents took him on their trip for the summer. I miss him a lot," She replied. "Now, where are we bunking?" Keith thought for a moment. There was a bedroom, but there was only one. He had always slept on the couch. This apartment wasn't built for four teenagers. 

"Um, there's a master and a couch. That's all I got," he said, motioning to the doorway and the furniture in front of them. "I'll take the floor," Pidge said, walking to the couch and placing her bags down a couple of feet in front of it. Lance quickly ran to the couch and plopped his bags on top of it, a proud smile on his face. Pidge just rolled her eyes. 

"You can have the bed, buddy," Keith said to Hunk. he just shook his head. "No, you can have the bed."

"You're the one who's gonna be driving us everywhere, bro. It's the least you should get," Keith explained, and the other two nodded in agreement. "You deserve it, man," Lance added. Hunk sighed and nodded, walking through the tiny hallway to the bedroom. The bathroom wasn't connected to the bedroom through a door. The small hallway met an end with the master on the right, the closet in front, and the bathroom on the left. 

"Great," he said, dropping his stuff next to Pidge's. "Now that we've got that taken care of, it's only ten o'clock. What are we gonna do?" Hunk came back from the bedroom and sat down on the chair next to the couch. Keith took a seat next to Lance and Pidge sprawled out on the floor. 

"Are things starting to close?" She asked them. "Nah," Lance replied. "All those buildings will be open until like midnight." She nodded but didn't say anything else. 

Then she remembered something. "Motorcycle." Keith perked up at the word. "What?" Pidge sat up, facing Keith. "You said you had a motorcycle, is that actually true?" Keith could hear the excitement in her voice and saw the little sparkle in her eye when he nodded. "Yeah, of course it is."

"I wanna see."

There was no remark of retaliation, so that was what they decided on. The paladins returned to the black shoe mat, their socks slipping slightly on the fake wood floor. Once they had shoes, they returned to the elevator, walking on the same creepily comforting carpet as before. This time, when they rode in the elevator, Keith pressed the 'P' button instead of the '1' button. 

When the elevator stopped and let them out, they were walking in the parking garage below the complex. Keith led them to the far corner, where the light in the ceiling was broken. The whole area was doused in shadow, making it hard to see anything. Even the lines for parking were the same shade as the concrete beneath. No wonder no one else parked in this corner. 

Keith pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. The beam of light landed on the vehicle hiding in the corner. If he hadn't turned on the flashlight, Pidge wouldn't have been able to tell that it was there. Then again, that was probably the point. 

He passed the light over the vehicle. It was beautiful. A spotless red paint job covered the metal, and black plastic covered the controls. Shiny gray leather spread across the seat. By the way that the boys had been describing it, she thought it was gonna be old. But this thing looked brand new. Every corner and curve was cared for. If it was old, Keith was really good at not wrecking it. 

It was a beautiful piece of machinery. She could barely take her eyes off it. 

Then Keith turned off his flashlight. His footsteps grew quieter. Was he walking _away?_ Pidge whipped her head around to see the other two following him. "Where are you guys going?"

"Um, back to the apartment, where else?" Lance answered. "You seriously make me walk all this way, show me _this_ ," she said, motioning to the motorcycle that used to be visible. "And they walk away?"

"Well, it's not like we can ride it right now."

"Why not?"

"It's late, there's always tomorrow, and we gotta save the best part for last," Lance said, smirking. She feigned a pout and ran to catch up with them. 

When they reached room 216 again, Kosmo was there to greet them. Pidge helped him meet Hunk and Lance and be comfortable around them, so he wouldn't attack them on sight as he had with her. 

At some point after that, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge went to go see what was in the fridge. They weren't really sure what they were expecting, seeing as Keith and Shiro probably didn't want to waste stuff while they were over at the Holt's, but they looked anyway. 

They found a half-frozen bag of pizza rolls in the back corner of the fridge and claimed that would be tomorrow's breakfast. Some music was played at some point, Pidge and Keith grabbed some blankets for the floor, and Lance tried to teach Kosmo fetch with one of Pidge's shoes. 

Keith had to hold her back from beating his ass. 

They found a deck of cards and played poker with cheerios from their snack bag acting as chips. At least, they played until Kosmo started eating them. 

Then they played go fish. It turned out that Keith, while absolutely horrible at MarioKart, could really play go fish. He won every single round that the group played. After a little while, Kosmo got sleepy and laid down on his little bed by the couch. 

Hunk was inspired by Kosmo and went to be pretty soon after that. It was easy for him to sleep while the others were up because he had a door to close. The red, blue, and green paladins heard snoring through the fake wood door a couple minutes after that. 

It was very uneventful in the apartment at midnight. They were all pretty tired after the long drive, but the caffeine from that morning kept them from actually sleeping. The three entered a slap-happy state, where really anything amused them. 

It made for some good laughs and blackmail videos for the future. 

It was probably around one when Keith got too tired to stand. He collapsed right onto the couch as he was walking, and quite literally fell asleep as soon as his head hit the cushion. Upset by the robbery of his claimed place, Lance gently rolled Keith off the couch and onto his blanket. 

Pidge and Lance stayed up for maybe another hour or two. It was mostly gossip and looking through camera rolls, which was surprisingly fun. They created a group chat for the four of them for the next few days. 

"What do you think?" Lance asked, spreading his arms wide. He was wearing one of Keith's _many_ jackets. This was probably the fourth one he'd tried on. "You look," Pidge said, looking him up and down. "Like an emo model," she said, and the two broke out in another fit of whisper laughter. They were both still too slap-happy to think straight. 

"I own a motorcycle," Lance said in the deepest voice he could muster, taking a few dramatic steps toward Pidge. His hands acted out his words with him, making the impression all too perfect. "I'm not," he paused, flipping his imaginary hair. " _Like_ other guys."

The two started wheezing again. 

"Wait, wa- _wait_ , it's my turn," Pidge said, walking over to the kitchen and pulling a spoon out of the utensil drawer. She took it in one hand and grabbed a plate from the pile of clean dishes next to them. She tapped the spoon lightly, imitating the movement of a knife chopping food. "Gordon Ramsey," she said, pretending to gasp at the imaginary chef in front of her. She gripped her plate close to her chest and tapped the spoon faster. "Back," She whispered, giving the air next to her an attempt at a glare. "The _fuck_ off."

Once more, the two of them erupted in laughter. Pidge put the plate and spoon on the counter so she wouldn't drop them when she doubled over. They were literally rolling around laughing on the fake wood floor. At one o'clock in the morning. 

It was a while before they got up from the ground. Whenever they thought they were done laughing, one of them would giggle and suddenly they were whisper-howling again. After the laughter finally stopped, they slowly sat up. 

They heated up a handful of the pizza rolls and tried to catch them with their mouths. Pidge was pretty good, but she missed one and it hit the floor. Lance missed one and it exploded over his face. 

The two ran on the fake wood then slid to see who could slide the furthest. Neither of them could really stay standing, they just fell before they could see who won. 

The night was quite chaotic. 

Eventually, the two got tired enough to go to bed. Lance laid on the couch, facing Pidge who was on the floor next to him. 

"Do you wanna know a secret?" Lance whispered to her. Pidge turned her head towards him, a goofy smile on her face. "Yeah!" She whisper-shouted back to him. Lance leaned in a bit closer, and so did Pidge. "I think," Lance started, glancing at the oy sleeping peacefully next to Pidge. "That mullet has a _crush_ on you."

Like two small children, they started whisper-laughing again. They were acting like first graders. "Really?" Pidge whisper-asked him. Lance nodded dramatically. "He blushes whenever you're around, so he clearly has a crush," he explained. 

The two fell asleep whisper-laughing. Exhausted and ready for the next day. The rest of the pizza rolls patiently waited on the counter behind them. 

Before Pidge embraced the sweet peace of sleep, she looked out at the window one more time. 

The lights wished her goodnight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe I'm back
> 
> With a really fuckin long chapter
> 
> This took me a hot minute


	14. You Call Robbing A Bank Fun

"Oh my God, Keith! What is this!?" Lance shouted from the bedroom. Hunk bolted up in bed, frantically looking around for the source of the noise. When his eyes fell on the teenager in front of him and standing by the open closet door, Hunk groaned and fell back onto the mattress. He buried his head underneath the pillow.

A small crash came from the opposite side of the fake wood door, and Keith swung it open shortly afterward. He had a shirt on top of his head, tangled up in his long hair. He looked like a mess. "What the fuck do you want, Lance?" He asked quietly with a deathly tone.

Lance paid no attention to the threatening response and simply turned to face him. Hunk remained hidden under the pillow. "Your fashion sense is beyond horrible. Why do you have like forty of the same jacket?" He asked, his voice relatively monotone.

Keith closed his eyes and willed himself not to beat up Lance's ass. "I just woke up, Lance. I don't need your bullshit right now," he said quietly and exited the room calmly. Lance just shrugged and continued searching through the small space.

A loud "And get out of my closet!" told Lance to stop rummaging.

Pidge was heating up the pizza rolls in the microwave. She pulled them out of the tiny oven and placed them on the dining table. At the small of the freshly baked pizza rolls, all three boys were out of the room and sitting around the table almost instantly.

"How did you guys sleep?" Keith asked, plopping a pizza roll in his mouth. Instant regret flowed through his features, and he flailed his hands in the air as he ran to the fridge to get some water to cool his mouth down. Lance laughed then tried to eat one himself. He soon joined Keith by the fridge door.

"Your floor might be fake but it's surprisingly comfortable," Pidge said, as she and Hunk waited for their rolls to cool down. Keith and Lance made it back to the table a little while later, a pitcher of ice water in tow.

"Hunk, man, you went to sleep way too early. You missed all the fun," Lance said, returning to his seat. "You call robbing a bank fun. I'd rather be sleeping," Hunk said, chuckling.

The view outside the window was even more impressive at sunrise. The orangish light baked the streets in a warm glow. The windows of the huge buildings reflected the rays of early sunshine, creating intricate patterns on their facades.

It was even prettier than the evening. Maybe not as beautiful as the waterfall when the sun just started to rise, but it was close enough for Pidge.

"What are we gonna do today?" Pidge asked the others, finally feeling her pizza roll and deciding it was cool enough to eat. She popped one in her mouth, and the paladins exchanged a look. None of them had really thought about any sort of schedule, up until this point it was just meant to be spontaneous. Now they actually had to think.

"Well, we have some dares to complete, don't we?" Keith said, tentatively eating another pizza roll, his glass of water at the ready. "That's right. Keith and Pidge, you still have to do yours," Lance replied.

"Is today a good day to break into your high school?" Pidge asked, and Lance excitedly nodded. "Yep. All the teachers are out for the summer, and I know the window they forget to lock every time. Easy in, easy out," he explained, and Pidge nodded her approval.

"So that's our plan for the middle of the night. When is mullet gonna make his debut?" Hunk asked, and they all turned to Keith. "Huh? Oh," Keith said, remembering what he had agreed to the previous day. "Maybe after lunch? Lance, didn't you want to see your family?"

"Yeah. They said lunch would be the best time," Lance said. "So after lunch, we can head over to the studio, then break and enter at midnight."

"I thought you said at witching hour," Pidge responded, raising an eyebrow. "You're not _scared_ , are you?" Lance feigned a scoff and shook his head. "What? No! I just don't wanna be up super late and end up accidentally staying the night at Altea."

Pidge nodded, smirking. "Yep. Definitely that. You're not scared at all." Lance playfully punched her in the shoulder.

"So, what does that mean for right now?" Keith asked. "Well, the cook inside me is telling me that this is a terrible breakfast. Maybe we should show Pidge the inside of a Starbucks," Hunk suggested.

"Can't be too different from the inside of Sal's, right?" She asked, looking at the boys sitting around her. "Well, there are multiple employees as educated as Acxa serving a shit ton of people drinks. It looks way different, but it's the same concept."

"There really is no experience like Starbucks for the first time," Lance said with a sparkle in his eye. Pidge raised an eyebrow at the teen. "It can't be all that grand," she said, and Hunk and Keith shook their heads. "It's nothing life-changing. Ignore his caffeine-deprived ass."

When they had finished the remaining pizza rolls, they all wished Kosmo a sweet goodbye, promising to return soon. After all, that apartment was the only available place they all had to stay at the moment.

The walk outside to the van was interesting. Pidge was still mentally ecstatic about the window elevator, marveling about how she didn't have to grip any metal in order to travel up and down. She oohed and aahed at the tops of buildings that gradually grew higher up in the sky. They were still enveloped in the sun's warm light, but seeing it up-close made it all the more stunning.

The small _ding_ when the elevator stopped moving made her jump. She was a lot more comfortable when they were all inside the vehicle, watching as lots of people walked by on the sidewalk next to them. Keith was right, there were lots of people.

Hunk started up the van. The first thing that Pidge noticed about the roads was that there was almost a solid block of cars. There was very little space in between the vehicles driving on the pavement. How were they supposed to get anywhere with so many people in the way?

There were also many loud honks coming from a million different directions. It made sense, people were angry that they couldn't get to where they needed to. But with this much traffic, why did they feel that honking was necessary? All it did was make noise.

There was so much that Pidge just didn't get about the city. And it had only been a few _hours_ , how pissed was she gonna get at this place after three whole days?

She tried not to focus on the inevitable and instead look out the window and watch as Hunk somehow managed to weave his way through the mess of cars. They weren't driving very fast, by any means, but you didn't need to move a whole lot in this place to get somewhere completely new. Everything was so close together.

They moved slowly along the blocks.

The trip to a Starbucks wasn't very long. According to Lance, you could find one every other block in a place like this, sometimes more. That seemed completely unreasonable to Pidge to have so many of the same thing in such a large concentration.

It was less than five minutes before they pulled up to one of the restaurants. Hun found the nearest parking lot and they all exited Voltron. Pidge did her best to hide behind the other three. Without entirely realizing it, the three of them had formed a small circle around the girl.

She didn't need any protection, that was for sure, but she was new to the whole people thing. She felt comfortable with having familiar faces surrounding her. That was better than the mass of strangers.

When they got to Starbucks, their little circle broke. There were a lot fewer people in the restaurant than there were outside. Still more than Pidge would like, seeing as the line for the cashier nearly stretched to the door, but she really couldn't as for much at this point. She was walking in completely unknown territory.

"Here," Lance said, motioning to the end of the line. The paladins walked the grand total of four feet to the end of the line. Pidge tried to read the menu, but there were a lot of tall people standing in front of her. She raised herself a couple of inches into the air by shifting onto her toes, but it was no use. She still couldn't see.

Keith noticed her angry expression and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You'll be able to read it in a minute, just wait," he said, and Pidge nodded slowly. The people ahead of them were taking a long time to order. Their requests seemed very specific and descriptive.

As they took tentative steps to match the flow of the line, Pidge pondered what she was going to order. They didn't have a regular 'coffee' option as she did back in her pantry. They had such a variety of drinks and add-ins and all of that shit, but none of it made sense to her.

Coffee was coffee.

Done and done.

But apparently to this city, coffee had to be confusing.

Lance tried to explain the different options to her, but none of them made sense. She was still amazed at how many different types of coffee there were.

She ended up getting plain hot cocoa, deciding against trying to navigate the labyrinth of a menu they offered. She also got one of their breakfast sandwich things. Lance, like most other customers, had a ridiculously long order. The way that he recited it so easily was astonishing to the girl.

And the fact that the cashier could keep up with his demand was even more so.

The food was good. Not great, but good. Not even comparable to the quality of Sal's, but it wasn't fair to compare a huge food chain to a delicious home-cooked meal. Pidge wolfed down her sandwich and waited patiently for the others to finish theirs.

They had walked back to the van but weren't driving anywhere. Apparently, it would be a bad idea to keep driving around. Walking was the best option for the paladins now. The parking lot they were in was free, in contrast to the paid parking spot they had found the night before.

They traveled as a group around the city for a little while after eating. Pidge continued to freak out over pretty much everything. The boys didn't really matter though, they knew well enough that was the exact same reaction they had had when arriving at her house.

They continued to form a small circle around her as she walked and jumped and skipped, making sure that no one would accidentally run into her.

Lance took lots of photos for blackmail later on.

Keith couldn't help but feel a small flutter of warmth at Pidge's smile. She looked so _amazed_ , and there was this twinkle in her eye that was just so _beautiful_. Then he mentally slapped himself and demanded his brain to stop simping and pay attention to the sidewalk in front of him.

The paladins walked slowly along the concrete path. Granted, there was a lot to see, but it was painfully slow. It was hard to walk fast with such a large mass of traffic. During a regular school week, the population of people on the sidewalk would be much less. But this was the summer, and that meant that there were mobs of people passing almost every second.

Keith smiled as he watched the people walk by him, heard the cars honk, smelled the strange scent that was coming from some unknown origin. During his time in Balmera, he hadn't really given Marmora much thought. As much as he could hate the place, he did miss it just a little bit.

And watching Pidge freak out about it was a little amusing.

#_#

The McClain's were just as inviting as the Garrett's.

At first, they thought that Lance and Pidge were dating. His mom had laughed and placed a hand on the short girl's shoulder, saying that she was glad that her son had finally brought home an actual girlfriend this time.

After a quick correction of relationship status, Lance's mom had given her son a small _whack_ on the back of his head.

Their house was a lot larger than Hunk's place. It made sense, the family was huge. The building was probably a bit bigger than Pidge's house, and she was grateful for a bit of space this time around.

Since the McClain's knew of Hunk's legendary culinary skills, they practically dragged him to the kitchen to help them with lunch. It was pretty obvious that Hunk was a regular visitor. Keith was recognized, but it had clearly been a hot minute since he'd swung by.

Pidge, on the other hand, was really the center of attention. Lance's family was _huge_ , and they all went berserk at the news of a new visitor. She was being pulled into a dozen welcome hugs at once. Everyone asked her where she was from and how old she was and what school she went to.

It was obvious she didn't like being under the heavy weight of the spotlight, and Keith stepped in to respectfully let them know to calm down. Slowly, Pidge found her way to answering all of their questions from before.

Lance had a lot of siblings, but he also had a niece and nephew named Nadia and Sylvio that were much younger than the paladins, and they were amazed at how short the girl was. They were quite surprised to hear that she was in high school like their uncle.

The two children dragged the girl into the lounge room to play with them, and Pidge couldn't find it in her heart to reject them. They were quite cute.

Keith chuckled as she sent him a small salute and a smile before disappearing into the adjacent room. He joined Hunk in the kitchen shortly after. He wasn't good at cooking, by any means, but there wasn't much else he could do. Plus, Hunk was very grateful to have an assistant he could order around.

"Are you really from those places on the computer?" Nadia asked Pidge, handing the teenager one of her dolls. Pidge raised an eyebrow and grinned at the girl. "What places?" She asked. Sylvio responded with an excited shout. "The ones with lots of green!"

Pidge giggled, reaching her hand out to help Sylvio down from his spot on the couch, carefully making sure that the boy didn't fall. "Yep. I live there," she replied, and the two kids gasped. Their eyes sparkled with such awe that Pidge had to clamp her mouth shut to keep from screaming. How did they _do that?_ They literally looked like sunshine and happiness and everything good and all they did was fucking _smile_.

"What is the green like?" Nadia asked, scooting in closer to the teen and resting her small head on the girl's knee. Pidge gulped and did her best to recover from before.

"The green is really pretty, especially in the morning. You can watch the sun rise up in the sky," She told them, and they sent her another eye sparkle. This one wasn't as paralyzing, but it was still absolutely adorable. Pidge wasn't really sure how their family could resist anything close to puppy eyes with these two.

"The sun is blocked by the big boxes though," Sylvio said, frowning. He pointed to the window. They were located in a more rural area, similar to the layout of Hunk's place, but there were still big buildings in sight. _He must be talking about the buildings,_ Pidge thought to herself after pondering what the word 'boxes' had to do with anything.

"Well, when you're out in the green, there aren't any big boxes to block the sun," she told him, ruffling his hair a little bit. The small boy giggled at the touch. Nadia crawled up onto Pidge's lap and snuggled next to her chest.

Pidge let out a tiny whimper. There was no point in stopping it. This child was absolutely _fucking adorable_ and anyone who even _attempted to touch her_ would have hell to pay. She was fully prepared to die for these kids, no question asked.

Nadia giggled at her silence. Pidge perked up at the noise, looking down at the child in her lap. "I wish there weren't any big boxes sometimes," she said quietly, and Pidge smiled. "One day you'll go somewhere where big boxes are so far away you won't even remember what they look like," she told her, and the child giggled again.

Nadia's smile was literally made of sunshine rays. Pidge was convinced.

It was another half an hour before the entire family sat down for lunch. Nadia and Sylvio demanded that they sit next to Pidge, and she certainly wasn't upset about that. The two hadn't let her walk anywhere alone the whole time she was there, holding onto her arms like little koalas.

Before they started eating, Pidge pulled Lance over to her using her arms occupied by Sylvio and tilted her head up to whisper in his ear. "You could've told me that your brother's kids are the cutest fucking beings in the whole galaxy," she whisper-shouted, and Lance chuckled and shrugged in response.

The meal was more of a brunch than a regular lunch. Pidge could imagine that this family didn't get a whole lot of family meals, given how chaotic they could all be individually. She watched as, just like the other day, many conversations started around her. The volume was really loud, but it didn't bother her. She just wasn't used to so many people at once.

So, she turned to converse with Nadia and Sylvio once again.

It took the group a long time to finish their food and migrate from the table to the kitchen to put away their dishes. The food, as always, was delicious. Hunk got many compliments from the residents of the household.

At some point, after their dishes were taken care of, Nadia and Sylvio dragged Pidge upstairs to show her their rooms. Pidge listened excitedly while they pointed out all of the decorations on the walls.

There were sounds of chaos coming from the floor beneath them, but Pidge did her best to stay focused.

When they did have to depart the McClain household, it brought much sadness. Nadia and Sylvia were very insistent that Pidge become part of the family as soon as possible, which made the small girl laugh.

The paladins waved goodbye to the large family as they walked away. Neither party really wanted to separate, but they had other plans. And enough daylight had passed where they could be considered to be running behind their alleged schedule. 

Pidge recognized some of the buildings from their walk to the residence, but they were no less astounding the first time. The little circle of protection formed once more around the small girl. This time, she didn't seem to notice very much. 

Romelle's Studio was probably a grand total of ten blocks away from the McClain home, but the walk seemed to take ages. There were more people walking by in the early afternoon than there had been when it was the mid-morning time.

They passed by the road that led to the parking garage where Voltron was stationed, but this time they took a right, heading opposite the van. The buildings were different now. A change of scenery. 

There was really only so much squealing and gasping that PIdge could do. Eventually, she ran out of energy to be surprised by things. It was just too much. She was very overwhelmed. 

Keith pointed out a couple of things to her during her walk. She listened intently, eyes sparkling with every new piece of information. Lance was sneaking photos for future blackmail once Pidge was back in the safety and right mind of her own home. 

Hunk was focused on leading the group. The other three weren't really paying attention to where they were walking, more so just following the olive green vest their friend was wearing. 

It took then seven and a half minutes to reach the gym. It was a large building, not in height but in width. There were multiple stories to the place, and the Studio probably only took up one of two of them, but it was still a really large space. Especially considering how much space could cost in a place like Marmora. 

The entrance was much too underwhelming for the inside of the place. There were two large sets of double doors, but they sported no extravagant design or texture. They matched the color of the exterior nicely, but they diminished the mood of the rest of the street. On the outside, it looked like nothing more than a warehouse with lots of stairs. On the inside, however, it was a completely different world. 

When they actually reached the building, Pidge was quite literally speechless. Her mouth hung open, and for the first time since her arrival, she stopped thinking about the city. 

She didn't see a blank building with boring doors and concrete steps. She just saw her barn. A bit bigger, of course, a little neater, a hell of a lot taller, but it was still her barn. 

She was...home. 

When the three boys tried to continue and noticed she was glued to the sidewalk, they turned around. "Hey, you alright?" Lance asked, placing a hand on her shoulder. He had to bend over slightly to reach her eye level, but her gaze did not meet his irises. She was still transfixed on the building in front of her. 

Keith waved a hand in front of her line of view, breaking her focus. She shook her head, trying to regain her senses, and looked up to the three boys in front of her. They all looked a bit concerned. 

"Um...what?" She asked them, and Lance chuckled. He pulled the girl into a small side hug, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Pick your mouth off the floor country girl, let's get moving already!" He said, and dragged her towards the door. The other two followed them. 

Lance let Pidge go right in from of the left pair of double doors, and Pidge reached a tentative hand out towards the handles. She gripped the cold metal and pushed on the door. It didn't move. She raised an eyebrow and pushed the door again. It still wouldn't budge. 

She looked behind her, ready to kick Lance in the shin for lying to her about the open hours, but she was only met with three giggling males. The rest of the paladins were doing their best to stifle their laughter, but they weren't doing the best of jobs. 

She opened her mouth to yell at them for laughing at her, but Hunk pointed to the handle before she could say anything. Confused, she turned around. She looked back down at the handle. Then she saw it. 

Pull. 

Fuck. 

Her cheeks turned pink with embarrassment as she tugged on the handle, the door sliding open easily and allowing her passage into the building. She stepped into the area, a small breeze lifted the light curls in her hair. 

She took a moment to take it all in. 

There was just so _much_ to look at. There were trampolines, ropes, climbing walls, large sections of floor, double bars, all of it. It looked like a genuine gymnasium. A genuine gymnasium with so many fucking _people_. 

There was barely anything unoccupied, almost all of the equipment was being used. People were flipping around in the air, gripping and twisting on bars and rope. They flew through the air, soaring in the most graceful way possible. It was amazing to see this many talented people in one space at one time. 

Pidge saw the small line of people leading up to some sort of booth. It was probably the place you went to pay for all of this equipment. But, instead of getting in line like everyone else, the three paladins beside her just ducked under the rope to the other side. 

"Hey! Don't we have to wait in line?" She asked, hesitant to follow them. Lance turned around and smiled, shaking his head. "We're close friends with the owner. She pretty much demanded we come anytime we want free of charge," he explained, motioning for the girl to do the same as they had. 

Pidge hopped over the rope separating the line from the gym. She expected to get weird looks from the others in line, but none met her gaze when she glanced back at the group of people behind her. Instead, a couple of people smiled and waved at her. 

She caught up to the boys as they made their way through the large space. They mainly traveled against the wall to keep out of people's way as they moved. Her head seemed to be constantly spinning as she tried to look at everything at once. 

It wasn't until she looked to the giant ceiling that she saw it. It almost seemed to sparkle in the large lights that lit up the gym. The curved metal edges, the smooth shape. Pidge knew it all too well.

There was her ring. And this was her stage.

The ring hung above the large open area for floor gymnastics, but there looked to be no one using the platform. She pointed to the ring eagerly, doing her best to keep herself from jumping up and down in excitement. Keith smiled and nodded, and Lance walked over to one of the walls.

A large metal box was stationed on the wall, with a small door opening up to the insides. At first glance, one could assume some sort of electrical or wiring box, but that wasn't the case. Upon opening the metal container, she saw multiple switched with labels on them and a small map of the gym on the inside of the door.

Lance flipped one of the switches in the middle and then turned his gaze to the ring. Pidge's eyes followed his.

It was lowering to the floor. It was _lowering_ to the _floor_. That meant she could _use it_. In a hygge gym with plenty of _space_.

Not to say that her barn didn't have any space for her, but this was definitely an upgrade. Plus, the ring looked a lot less dusty and old. It would probably be a lot easier to hold on to.

Pidge scanned the rest of the area, looking for some chalk to put on her hands. She saw a small bag of it on a bench by the double bars and walked over to go and get some. By the time she returned to the platform, the ring was around two feet from the ground.

It looked magical, just hovering there. And with all the movement going on around her, it was quite the contrast.

The three other paladins drifted a bit, walking off to other parts of the gymnasium. Keith, however, stayed really close to the ring. He wanted to see the shit that would go down later. Lance walked over to one of the trampolines and did some sort of flipping routine thing, though he wasn't very good at it and fell down a lot.

Hunk's phone started buzzing. He pulled it out of his pocket and accepted the incoming call. He walked to the bench area in the far corner, talking to an unknown someone across the way.

For a while, Pidge just circled the ring. She observed the placement from the ground, the smoothness at which it spun, how taut the rope was, everything. She just looked. She was almost too afraid to use it.

There were probably some people looking at her. That was something she wasn't used to. They were probably wondering if she even knew what she was doing. That meant that she should do something...right?

She took her phone and wireless earbuds out of her pocket and scrolled for a while on her song list. Eventually, she came upon whatever song it was that she had been looking for and set the phone off on the outer edge of the platform. She hit play.

The music started drifting in her ears, dancing across the inside of her ears. The sound of squeaking of shoes and bouncing of trampolines was drowned out by the beat of the song. She slipped off her shoes and socks, took a deep breath, and walked to the ring.

Time seemed to slow down as she gripped the top of the metal ring in her small fingers. She flexed her fingers over the cold surface. They were familiar with the touch. She tapped the ring lightly so it spun slowly in place as she continued to circle the small area.

Lyrics started playing from her earbuds, and on cue, she stopped the ring with her hand. She sat on the bottom half of the hoop and pushed off the ground with her feet. She swung back, catching herself neatly in the palms of her hands.

Her legs pushed her in a neat circle, the hoop spinning only slightly as she changed positions. She was a bit closer to the ground than she would have liked. She was used to a remote that she could bring with her into the air, one that she could use to control the altitude.

She swung her legs up to meet the top of the ring, looping them over the top and wrapping them around the metal. She reached her hand down to brush the floor, causing her to spin faster.

She twisted in the air, dropping from her foothold to her handhold. Her weight shifted, causing the ring to spin faster. Her feet dipped down and threatened to touch the floor, but she pulled them up in time to glide right over it. 

She looped one foot around the bottom point and pushed, lifting herself into the air. She reached up to the rope to pull herself even higher, then she noticed something. 

The ground was...gone?

She was higher in the air. Just like in her barn. _I didn't touch anything, so how did-_ her thoughts ended abruptly when she saw Keith standing far beneath her, down on the diminishing platform, a small remote clutched in his hands. 

She smiled. He probably couldn't see it, but she was definitely smiling. She focused all her strength in her toes and slid her hands from the top to the bottom, letting her foot slip so her entire body was dangling on the metal from her two hands. 

"Down!" She shouted, just loud enough so Keith could hear it. He nodded, clicking some button on the remote to move the ring back down to the platform. She continued to spin, taking the time to stretch out her legs and shake her arms in the air. 

When her toes hit the floor, she started running. She ran as fast as she possibly could to the edge, getting as close as the handhold on the ring would allow. When she could run no longer, she felt the ring rise again. 

_Perfect,_ she thought, using one last toe push to get her in a circular motion. She flew higher and higher as the music in her ear intensified. Keith was probably wearing her other earbud, that was how he knew when to hit the buttons. 

She kicked her legs up into the air, wrapping them around the ring and letting go with her hands. Her legs maintained a split to allow her to stay connected with the device, but took the stress off of her fingers. 

As her gaze returned to the platform down below, she noticed something. Keith wasn't standing alone. There were _other people_ standing on the outer edge of the platform, their eyes meeting hers. 

Were people...watching her? 

Why were other people watching her? 

Down below, in the other areas of the gym, no one had really noticed the girl until she shouted down to the floor. But when they looked her way, it was impossible to take their eyes off of her. People stopped swinging on their ropes, stopped jumping on their trampolines. A small crowd began to surround the platform below her as she danced in the air. 

She reached her hands back up to grab the ring, lifting her legs to the top of the metal loop. Her toes hooked around the edge of the surface, her hands finding their way to the air next to her, her arms straightened and her form perfect. 

She spun in the air gracefully, letting her hair wave in the wind. Her eyes were closed. She could hear people down below. 

The music encompassed her brain, filling her senses. She was focused. She could do this. 

Then, a lot of things happened all at once. 

First, her arms moved to wrap around her chest, her hands clutching at her shoulders. They gripped at her shirt sleeves until her knuckles turned white.

Second, her feet slipped. It wasn't an accident, she was prepared, but that didn't mean it was scary. A collective gasp filled the space as the people down below couldn't believe what they were seeing. But Keith knew. He knew exactly what she was trying to do. 

And there was no way she could catch herself if she fell from this one. 

And lastly, her left foot extended to the side. With all of her strength, she pushed her left leg as hard as she could to the side, forming a right angle with her legs. 

At the same time that the inside of her knee came in contact with the bottom of the inside of the ring, she pulled her upper body up. Similar to the form of a sit-up. Her left leg, still filled with the momentum of the fall, rotated her entire compressed form from an upside-down position to a sideways one. 

She twisted her hips in midair as her crouched form disappeared, and landed neatly on the inside of the ring. Her left leg hung limp off of one side, her right dangling bent off the other. 

She did it. 

She had landed it. 

Just enough force to land in a sitting position, and not too much to send her falling out the opposite side. 

There was a beat of silence where she had to keep herself from crying. That was a move she had been practicing for _years_ , and she had _finally_ landed it. Part of her wanted to shout, scream in excitement. But the rest of her was almost too shocked to move. 

She could vaguely hear the sound of clapping from beneath her, probably from the mass of people that were watching. By now, everyone in the gym had abandoned whatever they had been doing to watch the girl. 

Pidge felt the ring lower. She could see the ground growing larger, the voices of the people growing louder. 

But that...wasn't the end of the song. There was still more. 

She didn't know if she had it in her to finish. She was too excited to have finally completed the first half with success. After all, it probably looked like the end for the spectators. Most people would end with something like that. But she wasn't done. There was still-

Her eyes fell on Keith. The ring was still widely circling the gymnasium but had stopped spinning. She could see him standing in the front row, a proud smile on his face. And...something in his hand. 

When she recognized the contents of his hands, she smiled and sent him a thumb's up. He nodded and crouched to the floor, setting the phone down on the padded surface. He clicked on the pull-down menu and disconnected the earbuds. 

Instantly, the music in Pidge's ears terminated, and she popped the bud out of her ear. She was nearing the ground now, and the ring stopped a good eight feet from the floor. When she circled back above Keith, she dropped the earbud into his waiting hand. With her other hand, she gripped the contents of his raised arm. 

She clipped the additions onto the ring, twisting the lock so they wouldn't come undone. She had also grabbed the remote from him, and noticed that there was an elastic attached to the device. She looped it around her wrist and continued to fly. 

Keith hit play once more on the phone, but this time the music played for the entire audience. There was still one minute on the track. They were going to make those 60 seconds count. 

At this point, most people had their phones in their hands. They were probably recording the whole thing. Keith couldn't really find it in him to care. He was too proud of Pidge for landing her move, and too excited for the next part of the routine. 

He ran out into the middle of the platform as fast as his legs would take him. 

Pidge locked eyes with him, and he rotated in sync with her circle motion. He counted the beats in his head as the music filled his ears. 

_1, 2, 3, 4-_

That was go time. At the same time that he began to run, she reached her hand out. He wasn't running to where she was, he was running to where she would be. His feet pounded on the solid ground, the footsteps lining up with the beat of the music. 

From an outsider's point of view, it looked like he was just going to barrel through a crowd of people. The other people opposite him quickly filed out of the way, not sure what to expect from him. 

Time slowed down. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears. He could hear his footsteps, and he could see Pidge sliding into his view. Her hand was still outstretched, her fingers beckoning for his. 

He knew what he needed to do. He had watched it a thousand times in other routines, had even practiced it with dozens of other partners. But he had never actually tried it with Pidge. And he wasn't sure she knew how to do it. 

In reality, it probably wasn't the best idea to try in the middle of a gym full of people. Something could go wrong. Someone could fall. And the last thing either of them wanted was to hurt someone else, especially someone who was just watching. 

But they were both very talented gymnasts, and they trusted each other. And apparently, for the time being, that was enough. 

He jumped. He leaped into the air, he felt the wind in his face and the excitement in his veins. He soared through the air. His hair ruffled with the force. It was perfect.

He reached the peak of his jump and raised his left arm into the air. His eyes closed, his shoulder relaxed. His heart was still pounding, and he could still hear it, but it was quieter. Muffled, almost like he was underwater. 

_1..._

_2..._

_3..._

_4..._

A hand took him. 

He jerked to the side. A sudden new force was pulling him sideways, pulling him up into the air. He listened, twisting around and looking up to the eyes of the hand in his. 

Honey. Milk chocolate. They swirled and sparkled so brightly that Keith found it difficult to look away. The sun poked through the windows above the entrance, the same light hue that filled the city each morning falling right on her face. 

A tiny smile rode upon her face. She almost looked like she was ready to cry. Hell, he was probably crying. Why? He had no idea. There was no reason to cry, everything had gone smoothly. 

His empty hand found its way to the extension that hung from the bottom of the ring, the metal clip and the hoop clinking as they rubbed against each other. 

It was simple, really. A small loop of fabric attached to a metal clip. All it did was offer another handhold for the gymnast. Most times it was seen as an annoyance and a distraction, given that it could spin around on the ring and disrupt your movements. 

However, for just a couple of things, it was a game-changer. 

He didn't want to, but eventually, he had to let go of Pidge's hand. He didn't like the way the warmth lift the tips of his fingers as they brushed hers for the last time, his other hand flying back to his side. 

Given the way she tentatively returned her hand to the side of the ring, it didn't look like she enjoyed the parting either. But now was not the time to be thinking about that. 

He remained dangling from the bottom of the ring, his hand looped in a small section of fabric. She remained elegantly perched along the inside of the ring. Time was still slow, and they could both hear the music. 

They were high enough off the ground where Keith wasn't kicking anyone in the face. That was a relief. 

Keith swiftly moved to grab the other cloth, kicking his leg up to loop his foot through the small hole. His heel settled nicely in the loop, and he brought his other leg to do the same. He felt himself nearing the ground. 

They weren't above any people now, as the circle they were traveling in was gradually shrinking in circumference. His hands planted themselves on the ground and he _pushed_ , making them spin. 

Pidge raised the ring high into the air once more and situated herself to climb. She let go of the remote, letting it flop to the side of her forearm. She placed her feet on the bottom of the ring and pushed off, pulling herself onto the top of the hoop. 

Her feet straddled the clip where the metal met the rope connecting to the ceiling. Her bare feet shivered with the cold touch. Her hands clutched at the rope as she stared down to the ground below. 

Keith bent his upper body up so she could see him. They were still spinning. Their eyes locked again. 

"Are you sure?" Keith asked, and Pidge just smirked. 

"Do you trust me?" She responded, defiance and excitement in her voice. Keith smiled, narrowed his eyes, and straightened his back, his arms hanging limp and his hands ready. 

Pidge took a deep breath. She could tell the song was almost over. Even though it was a bit hard to hear from this far up, she still recognized the signal words. In a normal routine, this would be where she would do her final little show, ending the piece nicely. 

This time was different. 

This time, she had help. She had a friend. 

Looking back on it, she would have laughed. She probably would've scolded her form or her timing or position, but in the end, she would laugh. In the heat of the moment, she always found herself focused and ready for the next step. 

This time, she just closed her eyes. She didn't even look. She felt her hands slip from the rope, felt the weight on the balls of her feet increase, felt her chest bend down to reach her knees. She could feel it, but she couldn't see it. 

In her mind, she painted a picture. The canvas was devoid of color. She was in control. 

She painted the ring. She painted Keith and the cloth straps looped around his shoes. She painted the music notes and the lyrics, floating through the air around them. She painted herself. 

She didn't paint the people. Or the ground, or the noise coming from down below. Instead, she painted the old bleachers from her barn. And the old foggy windows, the creaky door and poor excuse of a floormat. She painted the supplies off in the corner and the old mat down beneath her. 

Everything was in color. 

Everything was visible. 

This timing, this position. It was perfect. 

So she leaped into the air. Her eyes remained sealed shut. She watched as her body vaulted off the dangling ring and flew through the air. Her hair ruffled in the movement, tickling her nose. 

Keith had been expecting a straight jump down. He had been fully ready to catch her hands, maybe her waist if that looked like her intent. But for her to _backflip_ in a situation like this, was completely off the charts. 

He had to physically stop himself from panicking. She knew what she was doing. She had probably done this multiple times before. With the angle of her jump and the speed at which she was flipping, catching her hands would probably be the easiest. 

In fact, the flip made it a lot easier for Keith to be able to grab her hands. If she had jumped straight down, it would've been easy for his hands to slip on hers, causing her to fall. _Even in the heat of the moment, she's being as efficient as possible. Impressive_ , he thought, watching her tumble through the air. 

Then he noticed something. Her timing was off. Her power, her jump, it was too quick to time it correctly. Her hands were going to come faster than she wanted them to, faster than she had intended. 

And faster than he was ready for.

His fingers shook with anticipation. He watched her arc next to the ring and waited for her hands to reach for his. 

But the moment didn't come. 

Instead, she kicked her legs back, causing her to move farther away from Keith. 

His heart nearly plummeted to the ground. How was he supposed to catch her? Her hand was too far away for him to reach, she was moving too fast, and she was spinning even fast-

Slower. She was flipping slower now. That was what the kick was for. She knew her hands would miss Keith's she knew her timing was off, so she corrected it _mid-flip_. 

Okay...that was pretty fucking awesome. 

Before Keith could feel the sweet sensation of her finger embracing his, he watched her open her eyes. They had been closed. Why had they been closed? Had they really been closed that entire time? 

Come to think of it, the bright flash of beautiful brown _had_ been missing in his observations earlier. That was a very critical element to all of this. Had she...just jumped? Did she trust him that much? 

No, that couldn't be right. Even with a partner you've practiced with for your entire life, you can't count on them to always catch you. You have to make it possible for them to reach and grab. With practice, a blindfold could be doable. As improv, that was a completely different story. 

Once again, Keith found himself swimming in her eyes. They were so _fucking pretty_ , and he really couldn't bring himself to look away. On her end, she seemed to be experiencing the same sensation. 

The clocks might have been ticking in the gym, but time was quite literally frozen for the two gymnasts. They weren't moving. Pidge was still floating in the air, Keith was waiting for her hands. 

And their eyes were locked. Throw away the key. 

Slowly, slowly, Pidge reached out one hand. Her fingertips brushed Keith's wrist, and his fingers closed around the bottom of her palm. She wrapped her small hand around his arm, clutching it tightly. He returned the action, but made sure not to squeeze too hard. 

Neither of them watched their fingers move. They couldn't even if they wanted to. Their eyes were fixed on each other. There was no way to change it-

Keith's gaze was physically ripped from Pidge's as his arm jerked down. The sudden addition of weight was jarring, but he held on tight. He felt her swinging back and forth, felt the wind in his hair as the two began to spin faster. 

His arm could take it, the weight, but it was definitely more than he'd been expecting. The actual change in force had been quite graceful, as the end of her flip had been quite smooth. But he was now suspending the both of them from his feet. His legs were probably burning, but he couldn't really feel it that well. 

They seemed to dangle there for forever. Keith's hand didn't let up on her wrist, and she certainly wasn't slipping from his. They could hear the loud applause from the crowd down below, could see the flashes of photos and the background commentary of videos. 

But that was all happening down there. They didn't even have to worry about that because they had _wings_. And they could _fly_. 

At some point, Pidge lowered the ring with her free hand and the remote that had stayed on her opposite wrist. She touched down on the platform into the waiting arms of Hunk, immediately being crushed by a giant bear hug. She laughed. 

When Hunk eventually let the girl go, he handed her the shoes and socks she'd left on the ground and the phone that Keith had abandoned. As she put them back on, she handed him the small remote to the ring and he placed it on the metal box behind him.

Lance helped Keith get his shoes out of the straps and get into an upright position. He had to admit, it was nice to not have all of his blood rushing straight to his head. He was just about to congratulate Pidge on her beautiful execution of the routine when a booming voice interrupted him. 

_"KOGANE!"_

Keith's eyes flew to the source of the sound. He already knew who it was, and he wasn't really excited about it. He groaned as he saw Romelle approaching the crowd. People cleared to make a path for her, so she didn't need to push anyone out of the way. She was a woman on a mission. 

The shout had gotten Pidge's attention too, her head perking up at the loud noise. Hunk was still hovering over her, making sure to keep random people who wanted a photo or a high-five away. But, with the daughter of the owner in the group, everyone was silent. 

"When were you going to tell me you had a badass partner?" Romelle asked the teen, a hand flying to her hip. She wore a light face of makeup with really long eyeliner. Her long blonde hair was up in a messy bun with shorter strands in front framing her face. Her cropped sweatshirt and jeans complemented each other with pretty pastel colors, and her white shoes looked to be painted on one side. 

Pidge was rather shocked. She looked like an actual city girl, one who took care of herself in the morning. One who had a skin routine and a hair routine. One who gave a shit about what other people thought about her when they first laid eyes on her. 

Pidge liked her light British-sounding accent. It suited her. Overall, she was really pretty. 

"I-I..." Keith started, his mouth open with a lack of sound coming out. Romelle raised an eyebrow, and Pidge explained for him. "I-I don't live around here," she said and Romelle smiled at her. 

"Ah, that's why I didn't recognize you. I know for a fact that I would remember talent like that," she responded, and Pidge's cheeks flushed pink. "I-um...thank you," she replied, not really sure what to say. God, she sounded like a total idiot didn't she? She definitely wasn't used to this much interaction, much less this attention from people. It was obvious the crowd was listening to them, none of them were talking or moving.

"Are you guys in a group?" Romelle asked, motioning to the Blue and Yellow paladins, who were standing behind Pidge. Pidge nodded. "I see. Where are you from?"

"Little town. A long drive from here."

"How'd you meet these guys?"

"Friends of my older brother. Well, kind of."

Romelle giggled. It was a pretty sound. "How long are you gonna be in town?" When Pidge responded with a mere two days, her smile fell. "Aw, that's a bummer. I would've loved your help around here."

"What do you mean?" Pidge asked her, an eyebrow raised in confusion. Romelle raised both her eyebrows in response, surprised that the smaller girl didn't know. 

"Um, did you see yourself up there? That was absolutely amazing! I've never seen anything like that in all my life!" Pidge's eyes widened slightly at the exclamation. She hadn't expected this kind of a reaction from the place's owner. 

She saw stuff like that all the time...right? After all, Pidge was only fifteen. There had to be some adult gymnasts who practiced at this place, it was huge!

"I-I mean...I-"

"What's your name, country girl?" Romelle asked, cutting her off. Pidge closed her mouth and hesitated before opening it again. She wasn't really sure how to respond to that. Should she say Pidge? That's what everyone else called her. But what if Romelle thought that was a weird name? Should she just say Katie? Or would that seem too personal?

A million thoughts ran through Pidge's head. _This shouldn't be hard, it's just speaking to someone, dammit,_ she thought to herself. She was right. This was just _one singular person_ , yet she was struggling to keep small talk with the girl. 

Being a person in a city was beginning to get harder than she expected. 

"Pidge," she replied. She didn't want to sound too informal. That would probably be embarrassing if Romelle didn't want to go on a first-name basis. Pidge felt much more comfortable and gender-neutral at the moment. 

"Never heard that one before. Where do you compete?" She asked again. Pidge didn't like how one-sided the conversation was becoming. She didn't like answering so many questions, _why were people asking her questions again?_ It seemed like an awful waste of time to ask about her. Nothing interesting happened to her. 

"Um...compete? I don't compete with anyone," she replied, her voice hesitant and small. She was confused. What did Romelle mean by compete? Like a fight? Like the fist fight she had with Axca?

"You're telling me you're not on a team of some sort?" Romelle said, astonished. At Pidge's tentative head shake, she gasped. "I'm sorry, but that's absolutely ridiculous. You are at least ten times better than anyone I've seen from Altea-"

"Ouch," Keith mumbled, but his remark was loud enough to be heard by the other two. Romelle mentally slapped her forehead and corrected her statement "-better than _most_ I've seen from Altea, you could _totally_ dominate the competitions!" She spoke with excitement. 

Pidge couldn't help but be a little enthralled. 

Murmurs of 'Yeah!' and 'You should totally try out!' flowed in from the people surrounding her, and she gulped. She didn't like being surrounded by a mass of people that were all staring at her. These were complete strangers, not her neighbors back in Marmora. She didn't know any of these people well enough to be comfortable around them yet. 

Both Romelle and Keith seemed to notice Pidge's situation at the same time, but only one of them grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her through the crowd. Keith stood there, watching as the two girls disappeared from view. He wanted to chase after them, but his legs were still tired and wobbly and didn't want to listen to him. 

As soon as the girls were out of earshot and their comments could be drowned out by the remarks of the audience, who were now chasing after the two teenagers, Lance and Hunk both placed a hand on Keith's shoulders. 

"Aww, little Keef is in _loooooooove_ ," Lance said, drawing out the last word like it was a lyric to a song. Hunk just chuckled in agreement. Keith immediately whipped around to face them, desperately trying to correct them, tell them he was not, in fact, in love, and that it was absolutely absurd that they ever think such a thing. 

His blush betrayed his words. 

He turned once more to the double doors with a clear 'push' written on the front. There were people filing out, probably trying to find Romelle and Pidge. With any luck, the two had escaped the mob. Romelle knew the streets well, and Keith trusted her. He would just feel way more comfortable if he knew where they were going. 

The videos of the performance, as Keith would soon find, would be everywhere on the internet in the next few days. Soon enough, almost everyone in Marmora would be able to recognize Pidge and maybe even Keith if they looked hard enough. 

Surprisingly, unlike most other times where he got attention, with this one, he wasn't so mad.

Pidge never really ceased to amaze him. She always had some new trick up her sleeve, some crazy idea to try, and some mid-air correction to make. It was beautiful, really, how talented she was. Romelle was right. She should join a team or something like that. 

And Keith was going to do everything in his power to make that happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so first of all IM SO FUCKING SORRY THIS TOOK LIKE A MONTH AND A HALF
> 
> I swear, even with my shitty schedules and all that this is really ooc for me. I usually don't do shit like this. 
> 
> I started writing another fic then got caught up with that, then started obsessing over gay volleyball anime bois, and completely forgot about this story. 
> 
> So, to try and make it up to y'all, I wrote a really long one. 9.6k words. I hope y'all can forgive me.
> 
> That's all for now. I promise the next one won't take so long.

**Author's Note:**

> Yay you didn't chicken out on me. 
> 
> I promise my writing gets better later on. 
> 
> Have a nice day. 
> 
> Or don't ;)


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